EDUCATION AND SOCIAL STRATIFICATION: In Sociology and Anthropology, social stratification is the hierarchical arrangement of individuals into social classes, castes and divisions within a society. These hierarchies, which may be overtly or covertly preset, or not present at all in some societies, are quite common in state-level societies. In our society we rank people according to the scarce resources they control. Money and property are scarce resources in our society and those who own a great deal of money and property, wealthy people, can use this resource to gain power. It has been said that very respected people also control another scarce resource – public respect and that they can use this resource to gain power. MEANING OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATION The term stratification is derived from the geological concept of ‘Strata’ which means rock layers created by natural processes. Stratification is a hierarchy of positions with regard to economic production wh