CHARACTERISTIC OF FORMAL EDUCATION

Formal education is a term that broadly covers the education imparted in schools and colleges and has the following characteristics –

1. It is purposeful, time-bound, syllabus-oriented, and professional with identifiable objectives and specifications.
2. It is deliberately planned for the purpose of training the child.
3. Consists of imparting instruction through direct schooling and tuition.
4. It intends to prepare the child for any walk of life where he can take up a suitable profession on attaining maturity and lead a life that is socially desirable.
5. Conscious and well-planned schools and colleges are the specialized agencies for imparting formal education in socially developed groups.
6. There is definite course to be covered within a definite time.
7. While teaching through formal education, specific norms and styles of functioning within a fixed time-table are followed.
8. There is a syllabus, textbooks, and infrastructure like buildings, laboratories, playground, etc. proper teaching aids and methods are followed with attendance being marked, examinations and assessments done and results reviewed.
9. Professional teachers with specific qualifications and training are involved and fees have to be dully paid.
10. This type of education though universally followed, is actually artificial, not deep-rooted, transitory, less effective, monotonous and is often theory based and far removed from the practical world.
11. Formal education only prepares man to earn a living more specifically for the white collared jobs.
12. Formal education concentrates on developing the 3R’s viz. reading, writing and arithmetic and often does not realize the hidden potentials of a child.
13. There is mental strain on the teacher and the taught.
14. It is covers only part of an individual’s life and is not a lifelong process.
15. Education is centralized.
16. Student cannot earn and learn at the same time as it is a full time course.
17. Teacher is considered superior to the taught.
18. It caters to all round development of the child.

Conclusion –

Thus though formal education is a universally accepted mode of education, it is often theory-based and far removed from the practical world.