UPSC Prelims 2012 · CSAT

Question 1: Reading Comprehension

Passage beginning “Education, without a doubt, has an…” — Passage – 1 · as printed by UPSC

What do you understand by the ‘instrumentalist’ view of education ?

aEducation is functional and utilitarian in its purposes.

bEducation is meant to fulfil human needs.

cThe purpose of education is to train the human intellect.

dEducation is meant to achieve moral development.

AnswerUPSC’s answer is (a).

The instrumentalist view judges education by what it delivers: jobs, income, upward mobility and trained manpower for national development. Education is then a means to something outside itself, so it is functional and utilitarian. The passage grants this use-value but argues that, at its deepest, education is not instrumentalist: it deserves respect in itself, as a process of intellectual and moral growth. Remember the contrast: instrumental means valued for its results; intrinsic means valued for its own sake.

Why each option is right or wrong

(a) Right. Valuing education for practical returns such as jobs and skills is exactly what instrumentalism means.
(b) Wrong. Meeting human needs is vaguer and broader; it is not what the passage means by the instrumentalist view.
(c) Wrong. Training the intellect is closer to the passage's own view of education as valuable in itself.
(d) Wrong. Moral development belongs to the inner process the passage values for its own sake, not to an instrumental aim.

Answer: UPSC’s key. Explanation: written by UPSC Grade, not by UPSC.

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Source: UPSC, Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination 2012, General Studies Paper II (CSAT), Series A. The paper on upsc.gov.in.