Find the appropriate meaning of the underlined idiom. Value education should…

Concept

An idiom is a fixed expression whose meaning cannot be worked out from the literal sense of its individual words; you must learn the phrase as a single unit. The idiom “part and parcel” denotes something that is an essential, integral and inseparable component of a larger whole — a piece without which the whole is incomplete.

Application

In the sentence “Value education should be a part and parcel of any education system,” the writer is saying that value education is not an optional add-on but a necessary, built-in element of the system. Substituting the meaning gives: “Value education should be an essential part of any education system,” which preserves the intended sense exactly.

Contrast

The near-meanings differ in force:

• “An essential part” — captures the inseparable, must-have sense the idiom carries.

• “An important part” — signals high value but still allows the part to be separable or merely significant; the idiom is stronger than “important.”

• “An additional part” — implies something extra added on, the opposite of being built in.

• “A plus part” — is not a standard English phrase and conveys no defined idiomatic meaning.