Social Policy Review

The London school of economics defines social policies as an applied subject concerned with the study of responses of societies to social needs. It is mainly focused on aspects of the society that are important for human existence. Such aspects include the basic human needs such as food, shelter, security, healthcare, and education. Some experts argue that social policy is any activity that affects the well-being of people in a society by greatly influencing the access and distribution of goods and services in the society. Social policies seek to improve the human welfare. They make sure that human need such as housing, security, and health are met. The most important areas for social policies include healthcare, child protection, social care, education policy and criminal justice. Social justice can also be used to refer to policies which govern human behavior.

There are various types of policies. One of them includes the education policy. The education policy is a collection of rules that govern all operations of the education system. Education occurs in many different ways in various institutions. For example, some schools require one to go through kindergarten, through the 12th grade and 4 years in college or university while others do not.  Additionally some education systems require that one goes through all of those stages before attaining adult education and job training. This shows that an education policy can affect the education one gets at an age in their lifetime.

In the United States, education has adopted a system referred to as k-12 education. This system operates across fifty states. Through these schools more than 5 million people have gotten employed. It also serves more than 47 million students. This greatly increases the cost used to manage it. It is estimated that the education system in the United States of America costs more than 2 billion shillings day. Due to post World War II advent, the American government has significantly increased the enrollment into Universities. This is especially in research-based institutions in order to protect and preserve its; military superiority, medical advancement, economic preeminence, and its political dominance in the globe. There were a few elementary schools, prestigious schools, and elite colleges in the American history. These institutions were independent of the government. This is because of their affiliations to religious institutions, and also perhaps due to their private charters. In the 21st century, this is in contrary with universities and colleges which despite of accepting sponsorship for research by the government they also accept government subsidiaries for students. The government has become the major stakeholder in the United States’ education program both for public and private institutions including Universities and Colleges. This means that even Private institution also enjoy government allocations and funds for Education.

Education has experienced an increased change at a drastic pace. This change has even been witnessed in formal education itself. There are considerable differences in formal education between 1970 to date. This was also different from what was taught in early 20th century.

It is relatively easy to alter the education policies in governments headed by dictators than in more complex democratic societies. This is because interests are deeply rooted in different spheres as such as; the nation’s economy, religious groups, government ideologies, racial differences, geographical differences, and ethnic differences among others.

The new World Order necessitates that everyone has to be educated. Therefore it is the responsibility of each nation’s policies on education to be compatible with this order. These policies should ensure that education provided should be of high quality and not just exposing individuals to schools.