Read the following passages and answer the items that follow passage. Your answer to these items should be based on the passage only. Education, without a doubt, has an important functional, instrumental and utilitarian dimension. This is revealed when one asks question such as what is the purpose of education? The answers, too often, are to acquire qualifications for employment/upward mobility, wider/higher in terms of income opportunities, and to meet the needs for trained human power diverse fields for national development. But in its deepest sense education is not instrumentalist. That is to say, it is not to be justified outside of itself because it leads to the acquisition of formal skills or of certain desired psychological social attributes. It must he respected in itself. Education is thus not a commodity to be acquired or possessed and then used, but a process of inestimable importance to individuals and society, although it can and does have enormous use value. Education then, is a process at expansion and conversion, not in the sense of converting or turning students into doctors or engineers, but the widening and turning out of the mind- the creation, sustenance and development of self- critical awareness independence of thought. It is an inner process of moral- intellectual development. According to the author, why should education be respected in itself?

The passage distinguishes between the utilitarian dimension of education (acquiring qualifications, employment, upward mobility) and its "deepest sense." 1. The passage states: "But in its deepest sense education is not instrumentalist. That is to say, it is not to be justified outside of itself... It must be respected in itself." 2. It then elaborates on this "deepest sense": "Education then, is a process at expansion and conversion... the widening and turning out of the mind- the creation, sustenance and development of self- critical awareness independence of thought. It is an inner process of moral- intellectual development." Analyzing the options: A) "As it helps to acquire qualifications for employment" - The passage explicitly states that education in its "deepest sense" is *not* to be justified by such instrumental outcomes. B) "Because it helps in upward mobility and acquiring social status" - This also falls under the instrumental/utilitarian dimension, which the author contrasts with respecting education "in itself." C) "As it is an inner process of moral and intellectual development" - This directly aligns with the author's explanation of education's "deepest sense" and why it should be respected "in itself." The passage states, "It is an inner process of moral- intellectual development," as the core reason. D) "All the a, b & c given above are correct in this context." - Since A and B are incorrect based on the passage's distinction, D is incorrect. Therefore, the correct answer is C because it directly reflects the author's explanation for why education should be respected in itself, distinguishing it from its utilitarian aspects.