This essay provides a summary of Value Education.
Prof. Kedar, Former Vice-Chancellor, Nagpur University, speaking at the Asian Educationalist’s Conference on Human Rights and Education held at Brahma Kumari’s Academy for a better world, warned that “There is no direct connection between values and technological progress. If there is, then, with the rise of technological and scientific knowledge, the values must also be at their peak. But it is not the situation today. Egotism, anger, violence, downfall of knowledge, wisdom, etc. are prevalent everywhere. Today’s education simply increases the competitive spirit.”
Value education, no doubt, is important; yet, it has become neglected subject area in today’s classrooms and curriculum. However, value- education can be adequately addressed in both the classroom and college curriculum. A very convenient and successful way of communicating values to a person is through his or her education, whether in school, college or university level.
Of course, learning is that process which continues right through a person’s lifetime and values can be imbibed by a person through every experience and learning opportunity he or she gets. However, the ideal time to begin learning and imbibing values is right at the start of one’s education that may be in pre-school or in school.
A good set of values will enable a person to raise his or her self-esteem, make others hold him or her in high respect and give him or her the confidence he or she requires to lead a life based on principles and self-confidence.
Most children start their education by attending a pre-school institution, i.e., a play-school or a nursery. Children in such institutions, learn tolerance and cooperation. By mixing with children of their own age who might be from different strata of society, they learn how to be tolerant of one another, cooperate with one another and to be impartial in their dealings with one another.
Developing tolerance in a person from a young age will teach the person how to get along and live peacefully. In schools, the students can he taught discipline, punctuality, honesty, perseverance and patriotism. A student can the value and importance of discipline only when a certain code of conduct is enforced which a student has to adhere to.
Another effective way of communication (of values) in the classrooms is to correlate the content with other subjects, real-life experiences and past and present happenings. When the student relates his or her content with other subjects, it is easily retained. Also it is very easy and effective way of imbibing values in a student.
Teacher must involve the students in discussions. This may not only create awareness among the students about our cultural and social values and traditions; but also creates tolerance and appreciation for our heritage. Also because the values are inculcated from childhood, they become a second nature as the child groups up.
In a simple way, it may be said that value education is education which teaches the following:
1. How to live like well?
2. How to find happiness?
3. How to make others happy?
4. How to manage all kinds of people and happiness well?
5. How to grow and succeed in the right manner?
Historically, education, in countries all over the world has had two main goals — to help youngsters to master the skills of literacy and numeracy, i.e., academic education; and to help them build good character education, i.e., value education. Societies since the time of Plato have made character a deliberate aim of education.
They understood that to create and maintain a civil society, there has to be education for character as well as intellect for democracy as well as literacy and for virtue as well as for skills and knowledge. Hence, fruitful education is the kind used for our welfare as well as that of others. This can only happen when one gets academic as well as value education.
Most effective way of communicating values is through narratives. Stories are interactive and therefore are very effective in communicating values.
1. They teach by attraction rather than compulsion.
2. They invite rather than impose.
3. They capture the imagination and touch the heart.
These are, no doubt, the reasons why the world’s greatest moral teachers have always used stories to teach eternal principles and truths. These are three ways in which stories can be used:
4. Read and left without comment or discussion to do their own work.
5. Read until a values issue is raised. At this point, the value issue is explored through discussion.
6. Read through to the end and followed by a set of discussion questions.
Some examples where values touched the hearts of great people and turned them around can be taught in the discussions:
1. Alfred Nobel: The scientist with a great deal of academic education, who invented explosives, was later on filled with remorse and guilt at his invention which could destroy hundreds of lives and level entire cities and cause pain and deformities even in future generations.
2. Emperor Asoka was one of the greatest Indian rulers. But his early success was based on much violence. He reached the throne after killing nearly ninety kinsmen. One day, in the middle of the battle, he realised that there were 110 true victors in war because so many died on both sides.
He became a follower of Buddha and changed his entire life. He served his people in wonderful ways. Even today, he is honoured and remembered.
3. Adolf Hitler, the head of the German Empire, was at one time, the most powerful man on earth. He misused his powers to confiscate land and money that belonged to others and to torture and kill millions. He caused the Second World War.
When defeat neared, he could face death bravely and committed suicide. His power deserted him when he needed it most because he had gained that power by throwing away all the good values from his life. His power was just an external show. It was not inner strength.
So far, whatever that has been discussed we do say and agree with the fact that education does help to impart values in education. Sometimes, we find that the values taught by parents have a negligible effect on children but if the same values are taught, through education then the children readily accept the value and regard them as important.
If we succeed in imparting these values to children, we can be sure that the Indians of the 21st century will be perfect citizens.
Thus, in order to create a better India, we should create citizens with moral values. Money once lost is not forever, but character once lost is lost forever. So we should all make efforts to preserve our character and this can be done only when we have the proper values.
Values that are important for our moral and mental characteristics, that shape our character. The purpose of man is to live not only a life but a good life with moral values.
Family is probably the most powerful agent of value education in nearly all the societies. Certainly, it is the first and paramount influence on young children. It establishes role models, inculcates prejudices and offers a model of social hierarchy. School provides the most effective way for most modern societies to influence the attitude and belief of youth on a mass media.
Within each country, .specific institutions have special responsibility for providing value education. The degree of responsibility for value education by a particular institution will not be the same from one society to another and may change overtime within the same society.
Each of these institutions gets affected; and one of the most important social institutions for value education is the school. Value education definitely gets greatly influenced by this social force! Value education is that process by which the school teaches the pupils the standards of correct behaviour.
In view of our glorious tradition of piety, tolerance, universal brotherhood with the present-day phenomenon of hypocrisy, corruption, dishonestly and inhuman attitude, we are undoubtedly convinced that we are facing today the worst moral crisis. Mad race for higher standard of living had led to the worst degeneration in a value like honesty.
Loyalty, courtesy and respect for elders, murders, dacoits, thefts and rapes have become common crime graph. And it may be firmly stated in this connection that there is serious defect in the school curriculum by showing the absence of provision for value education.
It is hence the need of the day that our pupils must be taught both to understand and how to apply moral concepts and also to see the significance of behaving or not behaving in a consistent way that recognises the needs and interests of others. Hence, the need of the hour today is to organise the curriculum on value education in the interest of clarity and precision. Entire education must become a goal-directed activity.
Accordingly, the broader objectives of the study may be stated as follows:
(i) To know the basis of value education such as philosophical, psychological, and sociological.
(ii) To trace the growth and development of value education in the international, national and state perspective.
(iii) To suggest measures for better utilisation of value education.
(iv) To clarify the meaning and concepts of value education.
(v) To evolve the evaluation criteria on value education.
(vi) To ascertain the extent of utilisation of value education in relation to plans, programmes and activities of value education.
(vii) To find out the interests of pupils in relation to different activities of value education.
The pattern of society that we find today is not conducive to freedom of thought. Today, we value reason and intellect, science and technology because they promise material affluence. We organise our social structure so that we can have bargaining power, not necessarily the power of the truth of the cause.
In fact, everything is patterned with a view to further our material welfare. Under such a form of social order what we value most is not the individual in his or her fullness; but, the individual in relation to his or her material ease or hardship.
On the basis of the above said facts, value education must be such which will be able to develop the moral autonomy of the learner and also sensitivities of the value content of the school as well as classroom activities.
The classroom activities should be free from attempt to indoctrinate the learner. For this, the pupils should be exposed to varieties of experiences and activities. This may include reading, listening, discussions, narration, direct presentation of ideas by the teacher and other strategies; and such strategies should be used with any of the following sources of value education.
3. Extracts from essays, articles, classics and newspapers.
4. Parables, proverbs, quotations and poems.
5. Value/moral dilemmas.
6. Classroom incidents/anecdotes/conflicts.
Such sources can be used in many different ways to involve the pupils -in thinking and reasoning about values. The classroom teachers can themselves prepare action plans/lesson plans using these sources. Teaching is not a job; it is an attitude.
Teacher is a source of information, a guide, a mentor, a surrogate parent, a motivator, all at the same time. Teaching is the only profession which always deals with the future. To be an ideal teacher, he or she has to be a role model. He or she should ask himself or herself —
Do I love my subject?
Do I love my profession?
Do I love my pupils as intensely as I love my own children?
Whatever that we have read so far, needless to say that a steep fall of values is witnessed during a century. Distortion of values is particularly due to imbalance between ancient values and explosion of knowledge in war field technology. Atomic weapons, bio-weapons, missiles, explosives, etc. are threatening the entire mankind.
The developed countries possess all types of dreadful modern weapons and are trying to boss over developing and underdeveloped countries. Today, the entire mankind is living in the shade of fear. Man’s very existence is at stake as he is indulging in wicked activities. Illegal marriages, prostitution, broken homes structure, divorce, etc. are also factors responsible for the decline of values.
Lack of mutual concern between parents at home, dissatisfaction and lack of mutual concern between parents at home, lack of security in families are also the factors responsible for the erosion of values. It is very true that the living style of parents leave deep impressions on the minds of children.
At present, due to complexity of modern society there is no set of moral standards. Sense of responsibility and belongingness to a group has fully vanished. Mutual respect and consideration for others is disappearing. Social gatherings and group activities are organised without giving due weightage to values.
Values can be effectively included when they are a way of life of principal, teacher, and parents. Otherwise they remain theoretical. A value-based life transforms the individual into a person and a person into a human being.
On the basis of the above said facts, it may be said firmly that Value- Education, should constantly be taking place in the schools whether the teacher is conscious of it or not. Education is that process which brings about desirable changes of behaviour in the individual in his or her knowledge, skills, attitudes and values.
The school seeks to achieve this through its curriculum that is nothing but the sum total of all its organisational activities.
Today’s children are tomorrow’s citizens. Children are the mirrors of innocence and reflect the values of our society.
One should not forget the fact that:
“The child is the soul of the parents
The child is the ornament of home
The child is the glory of the garden
The child is the light of the family
The child is the smiling bud in our life.”
Many a times, some such statement as follows, we do come across while going through the newspaper or newsletter –
This reads as follows:
“In a span of three days, two school children and a college student ended their lives”. Such occurrences, however seem to be inevitable, the way the high incidence of depression is afflicting today’s young ones.
The despondency created by examination stress, the failure to satisfy high parental expectations, the rising level of competition, the money crunch faced in trying to meet increasing peer demands, the increasing pressure on the time while attending various coaching classes and hobby classes even during vacations, are some of the factors which are causing a serious assault on the senses of our children.
No wonder that some of them are led to feel that they have no alternative but to end their lives in order to escape the trauma.
This situation which is worsening day by day, underlines the need to urgently have counsellors in schools, who can retrieve our children from the start of despondency and give them courage and confidence to come our of the mental quagmire. The urgency to appoint counsellors in schools in being emphasized by educationists from time to time, but governments have all along turned a deaf car to their plea.
Hence, it is felt that the parents on their part should take the following steps:
(i) Allow the children to choose a career and study course, which is to their liking.
(ii) Try to remove the various fears that children may have nursed in their minds in their early childhood stage.
(iii) Avoid comparison with other children or their achievements.
(iv) Understand their mind by talking to them and making them speak out what they have in their minds.
The child do discuss the subject career choice with their peers but end up more confused and parents think that their children are not mature enough to take any major decision on their own. We must realize our students of Class X and XII are not sufficiently exposed to all practical realities of a career.
They are captivated by the glamour. Hence, it is very essential that parents, teachers and education policy makers should come together to initiate an official decision to implement scientific planning of our children’s careers.
Life is still going to be tougher in future. Hence, the best policy is to give full moral support to our children and boost their confidence in both themselves and the system in which they live.
The Secondary Education in India today is passing through the dive straits, it being treated like a forgotten middle. Emphasis is being given to Primary Education which gets major share of government funding which is fifty-two per cent whereas Secondary Education gets only 30% of this funding.
This results in insufficient distribution of School infrastructure acute lack of trained teacher, inefficient teacher development, poor and dropping enrollment and inefficient overall funding for Schools. The scenario is really disturbing.
Our Task Ahead: Urgency and Priority:
1. Introduction of human rights, peace, sustainable development and related subjects in School and College curriculum for the benefit of new generation.
2. Training of resource persons who can orient teachers and students.
3. Production of Instructional Materials and Teaching Aids in all regional languages to reach the millions in rural areas.
4. Celebration of Human Rights Day on Dec. 10 recognizing talented persons and for creating mass appeal.
People every where desire peace, progress, happiness, justice and security. To meet these desires, people look towards administrators, executives and managers as a ray of hope. An administrator has to be very sensitive to the expectations and appreciations of the public. The excellence in performance of an administrator is determined by the degree of satisfaction felt by the public.
It is irony that on one side we hope to make the world a better place to live in and on the other hand we indulge to corruption, vices, violence and other negative traits which lead to different crises, problems and challenges, under which the hope of happy world reduces to merely a day-dream. Consequently, tension and worries prevail all around.
We must realise and recognize that despite making all efforts to reap sweet results, we are declining day by day to deficiency in human values and virtues. They crying need of the time, therefore, is a renaissance of ethical, moral and spiritual values.
Setting up Management Courses in University Administration: Need of the Time:
Most universities in India are caught in an administrative mess. Some of them are sick needing urgent treatment. Some have become so unwieldy, they cannot manger their affairs with any semblance of efficiency. Some require bifurcation or even trifurcation.
Until administrative charges are brought in, our universities may just continue rudderless with no one to show the right direction. What they need are managers to professionally govern them.
Vice-Chancellors are caught by group polities. They feel very lonely. The situation around them is frustrating. Naturally, they are obliged to lean on some group for moral and technical support. Moreover, they do not feel free to take independent decisions lest they encroach upon someone’s domain and fall from favour of politicians who pitch forked them to their coveted position.
The Registrars of universities whose status is equivalent to that of Professors generally do not have strong administrative background with the result that they tend to flounder and become slaves of the show-moving administrative system.
No wonder, they become victims of vested interests and the inbuilt efficiency limitations. The university’s administrative staff is, with honourable exceptions, habituated in keeping matters pending for one reason or another.
The various departments and sections dealing with matters like college affiliations, recognition of teachers and principals, college development council, university finance, registration of students for research degrees, statutory bodies like board of studies, academic council, senate, and most importantly the examination section, hardly work in proper coordination with each other.
The end result is: examinations are not held in time, the announcement of results get unduly delayed, leakage of question papers and malpractices in awarding marks become common occurrences, and convocations often get delayed disturbing the annual time table.
Postponement of decision-making, often due to delay in processing, leads to various position in senate, academic council, management council, board of studies etc., remaining unfilled.
Lack of advance planning aggravated by internal polities leaves many issues unsettled creating an atmosphere of seething discontent among students, teachers, parents and the public at large. The image of the university gets tarred irretrievably. It badly hurts the pride of the alumni who remember with nostalgia and gratitude the past glory of their alma mater.
The whole university administrative system presently appears to have deteriorated so much that mild palliatives will not work any more. A major reform by way redistribution of powers can alone rescue the system from the chronic malaise.
What the university administration needs is a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) with wide powers to implement the policy decisions of the Management Council backed by the order of the Vice-Chancellor and supported for implementation purposes by management degree-holders at the middle and lower levels of the administrative hierarchy.
It is time that academic bodies of the universities sit down to discuss the situation and evolve new courses, on the lines of hospital management courses, to train mangers for efficient functions of our universities. Serious urgent thinking following by action is the need of the time.
Really, it is time when all should realise the importance of love, peace and non-violence. The humanity is doomed without these value. Life is short and precious, and so it should be spent wisely, truthfully and happily.