SOCIAL STRATIFICATION

Social stratification is a concept involving the classification of people into groups based on shared socio-economic conditions. Giddens (2009:1133) defines social stratification as “the existence of structured inequalities between groups in society, in terms of their access to material or symbolic rewards”. This context explains in detail the three agents of social stratification and expresses personal views about the categories of social class in the Zambian society it further goes on to explain whether or not social class is responsible for students educational attainment. The three main agents of social stratification are the family ,mass media and educational institution this is in line with Agumba (2009:45) who contends that “there are many agents of social stratification and these include the school and the family”. One key determinant of one`s social standing is the social standing of one`s parents. Parents tend to pass their social position onto to their children because people inherit not only the social standing but also the cultural norms that accompany a certain lifestyle which they share with a network of friends and family, as such this social standing becomes a comfort zone, a familiar lifestyle and an identity .Agumba ( 2009:45) comments that “the family plays an important role in the development of an individual, impressions made by an individual often affect his or her adult life” thus a family creates an imprint of the social standing an individual might assume. The media plays a significant role in shaping reality it fosters peoples conceptions about class ,wealth and poverty the media tends to focus much of their attention on the concerns of the wealthy and the privileged Giddens (2009:745) “the ownership of the media has been often been concentrated in the hands of the few wealthy ones” television airtime is filled with advertisements for luxury cars cruise vacations diamond jewelry and other things which only