The first agent if socialization to be discussed is family.

The family is termed as the primary agent of

socialization because it is the first and closest social environment of the child. It has the main role of
childbearing and childrearing in the society. When a child is born, the first social contact is the family,
that is, the parents, siblings and other relatives. With the help of family, the child gets into society
through learning the basic aspects of the societal culture. The family determines the first social identity
of the child through its socioeconomic status and conditions, transmission of culture and kind of
education the child is enrolled in.

The merits of home as an agent of socialization is that it reproduce society, both biologically
through procreation. Thus, family ensures the survival of society because society cannot exist
without the existence of humans. It does not only give birth to new members if the society but it
also ensures that the children are properly physically reared through provision of basic needs
such as food, shelter, clothes and other needs like love and care. Family also stabilizes society
and preserves societal culture through socialization. It transmits the cultural norms, values and
practices to the child. Thus, the family is to develop and mould the social behaviour of a child in
order to be accepted as a member of the society. Additionally, family provides social security
and an environment of interactions; in families there is usually no loneliness, which allows
children to have greater ease of relating to other people. Children have siblings as their
playmates, people to interact with and this helps them become more social.

However, the family has its limitations. One the demerits of the family is that it may not transmit
the accepted universal culture of the society as social conditions of families differ from one
another. For example, rich families may teach their children values of rich life which may be
different from those of poor families. Such differences in families may create cultural conflict
within the society. Family may also limit the full socialization of the child through the
restrictions and sanctions they place on children in terms of their social interactions with their
peers. This is because usually have emotional attachments to children. If the family is poor, it
may also not limit complete socialization by failure to enroll the child in school.

The second agent of socialization to be discussed is school. The school is the social institutions
in which formal or programmed learning occurs. The school is termed as the secondary agent of
socialization. The interactions in the school is between an individual the teacher and peer
students. The culture and knowledge learned in school is usually planned and programmed in the
curriculum. However, informal learning occurs among fellow students in out-of-class situations.
The school as an agent of socialization is fundamentally different from a family because it is
emotionally neutral environment where the child is treated as not only beloved, but objectively,
in accordance with his real qualities.

Thus, the school as an agent of socialization has certain advantages which other agents cannot
give out. It provides a universal culture or social norms that are widely accepted by everyone in
the society because it considers and integrates different social issues of people in the society. The
school promotes social solidarity and harmony as to reshapes the social behaviour and attitudes
of children from different family backgrounds by developing the acceptable social norms. Like
the family, the school further trains an individual social responsibilities to accomplish in the
society as a member of the society. For example, it teaches about citizenship, rights and duties of
a citizen in the nation. Further, another vital importance of the school in socialization is training
of individuals for vocational development. It teaches them skills and competencies which
prepares them for future jobs.  In school, the child learns on practice what is competition, success
and failure, learn to overcome difficulties, or give up every time when cannot do something.
There is developing self-esteem of the child in the school socialization period, which in many
cases remains with a child for life.

On the other hand, the school is criticized as promoting values of minority upper class people of
the society. Kozol (2011) points out that the school does not promote socialism but creates
individualism and social stratification. Schools in many instances schools limit opportunities for
learners from lower class in various ways such as tracking, streaming and selection schemes. In
the words of Berne (2005: 45), “How schools choose the content and organization of curriculum
and instructional practices has strong link in creating of various inequalities of intelligence,
technical skills, achievement, and future opportunities.”  Thus, schools in the real sense are not
agents if equality but inequalities in the society.

Additionally, schools may also perpetuate deviance and delinquency of children in the society.
This may be happen through the various methods that promotes negative labelling on the
learners. For example, the attitudes and methods of teachers towards indiscipline learners may
cause learners to continue in wrong doing. Boudon (2004) argue against discipline methods such
as suspensions, expulsions, one to two weeks manual working without learning, and corporal
punishment, used to address indiscipline as not alleviating the problems but perpetuating them.
This is because it creates a negative label on learners which results in negative self-concept and
self-fulfilling prophecy. So learners continue in their wrong behaviour because they are
indirectly socially labelled like that that punishment.