ABSTRACT Contemporary education systems are increasingly shaped by performance, efficiency, competitiveness, and measurable success because of globalization, digitalization, and neoliberal policies. This transformation risks reducing education from a value-based field that supports the multidimensional development of individuals to an instrumental mechanism serving economic productivity. This phenomenon, defined as the instrumentalization of education, leads to the positioning of students as “outputs” and teachers as “performance operators.” The aim of this study is to examine the problem of the instrumentalization of education within its philosophical, sociological, and pedagogical foundations, and to discuss the holistic alternatives offered by the human-centered education approach. This research is designed as a theoretical review and is grounded in the perspectives of thinkers such as Weber, Habermas, Freire, Rogers, and Maslow. The study concludes that human-centered education is not merely a pedagogical preference but also an ethical and social necessity. Keywords: Instrumentalization of Education, Human-Centered Education, Neoliberal Education, Humanistic Pedagogy, Philosophy of Education.