Abstract

The essence of the sustainable development of society and education has been characterized. The article describes the fundamental instability of modern society’s development and reveals substantial potential of the phenomena of education, which is working to maintain the society’s sustainable development. On the analysis basis of sociological studies, the correlation between education and indicators of society’s sustainability as a system had been given by the author. Such correlation shows that education really determines and strengthens the components of sustainability: adaptability, general social stability and fortitude, interclass tolerance, social and psychological endurance and resistance to negative circumstances. The integrative functions of education had been firstly found on the basis of the study of complex educational functions and three directions of its implementation (teaching, upbringing and development). It has been estimated that they support the consolidation of society. The education’s specificity in the joint implementation of these functions makes a synergistic effect. One of these functions - the «conscious-volitional way of the expanded reproduction of social intellect» - is education’s distinctive characteristic It represents the uniqueness of this sphere in social production, as a whole, and in the sustainable development of society, in particular. On this basis the roles of education in achieving the sustainable development of society had been described. There are four main roles: the influence on the creation of human capital and scientific-technical potential in present and future generations; promotion to the innovation’s dissemination; saving of spirituality (ethical and cultural values and norms) and it’s improvement (the humanization of social subjects); production and application of tools which are building trust and understanding between people through the deployment of communication skills (strengthening of tolerance, smoothing of cultural differences as countering misanthropy and aggression). Thus, education in today’s world works as a pillar, supporting structure and it gets pivotal position in the achievement of the society’s sustainability development.