NOTES 67 In a wider sense education means continuous reconstruction of the human behaviour. This act of reconstruction of human behaviour continues through interaction between the individual and his physical and social environment in different roles through the participation in the various processess of social production. Through this process an individual changes himself and thereby acquires capacities to change the environment. In a broader sense, this is what education is about. In short, acquisition of social efficiency is the general objective of education. Through education we gather information and knowledge, acquire skills of learning and living and develop attitudes or particular ways of looking at the physical world and social life. The education imparted through institutions is organized, patronized and controlled by the state. In a class-divided society conflict of interests between classes is inevitable and the educational system cannot be helpful to the interests of the majority. The dominant cla^s, which owns the means of production, appropriates value produced by the working people and holds state power and uses the system of education as an instrument of exploitation. It creates a labour force to keep moving the wheel of its production system and propagates its ideas and views conducive to class domination. Struggle against Bourgeois Education In a lecture delivered at the All-Russia Congress of Education in 1918, Lenin very aptly tore open the mask of bourgeois education. He stated: Education is one of the component parts of the struggle we are waging. We can counter hypocrisy and lies with the complete and honest truth ... We have proclaimed the rule of the working and exploited people and there lies the source of our strength and invincibility. The same is true of education. The more cultured the bourgeois state, the more subtly it lied when declaring that schools could stand above politics and serve society as a whole. In fact the schools were turned into nothing but an instrument of the class rule of the bourgeoisie. They were thoroughly imbued with the bourgeois caste spirit. Their purpose was to supply the capitalists with obedient lackeys and able workers ... We say that our work in the sphere of education is part of the struggle for overthrowing the bourgeoisie. We publicy declare that education divorced from life and politics is lie and hypocrisy. The working people are thirsting for knowledge because they need it to win. Nine out of ten of the working people have realized that knowledge is a weapon in their struggle for emancipation, that their failures are due to lack of education...All who really sympathize with the people, all the best teachers will come to our aid, and that is a sure pledge that the socialist cause will triumph. 2 The bourgeoisie uses education as a prerogative of their rule, as a tool for maintaning their hegemony and perpetuating the values upon