Not necessarily. If the government were to, say, buy big screen TVs for its citizens that wouldn't necessarily create a social benefit as it may promote TV watching and negatively impact health. Education, however, it likely to give people perspective and options that will lessen their chance of looking to the criminal sphere for income and becoming a social cost via the prison system.
Now you are mixing two things. I am stricly opposed to Government forcing anything on individuals as it doesn't lead to any good. So if Government forces everyone to buy TV (or for that matter anything else), obviously it's no good for society.
I was talking about any voluntary, legal action by an individual which benefits himself. Such an action always leads to improvement in society as society is made of individuals.
