Value based Education & Inculcation of Values among Students

Value based Education & Inculcation of Values among Students

“Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.” –C.S.Lewis

Value Education is teaching of universal moral values like truth, tolerance, patience, honesty, non-violence etc, to the students and Values-based Education is an approach to teaching that imbibed with values. Value based education not only ensures holistic environment for teaching but also learning the full range of academic, social and interpersonal skills. Value based education creates a positive learning environment that not only enhances academic achievement but also develops students’ social and interpersonal skills that last throughout their lives. The purpose of value education is to develop patience, honesty, moral values etc., good manners and responsibility towards citizenship and democratic way of living, personality in its physical, mental, emotional & spiritual aspects in all students.

It is a strange paradox that value education is so serious a concern in a country like India, which has culturally and spiritually been so rich. Reason being that we are passing through a transitional phase, where old values seems to be lost due to rapid technological, scientific and industrial growth on one hand and on the other hand no replacement by new values. It is modernization that is responsible for the crisis in values. Modernization involves industrialization which results in people becoming self -reliant and self –centered, hence more interpersonal in their conduct and the process of disintegration has made its way in.

It is the right time for policy makers & educationists to realize that without values formal education will crumble because a man, as long as he guards his values, is called a man, the moment they are gone, he ceases to be a human being and stoops down to the level of animal. Therefore the crying need of present age is, to inculcate the spirit of self discipline, sense of duty, freedom, truth, honesty, hard-work, punctuality, reasonability, devotion to duty, love for one country, justice, non-violence, secularism, care for public property, consideration for others, scientific temper, team-spirit, cleanliness, humanity, cooperativeness, service to the people.

The question arises how to inculcate these values for the desired behavioral pattern which apparently involves individual, school, society and environment. We have a blend of natural and social world in our curriculum. The natural and physical sciences, the humanist studies have formed an integral part of the curriculum, but little has been done for the moral education. Human values should be taught along with existing subjects like Science & Social Science and languages in spite of teaching these as an additional subject or specific topic. Universal truths and great moral values common to all religions, sects & faiths should be taught through words, activities and books in and outside classrooms by all subject teachers. The children can learn these truths through daily life of the teacher. If the teacher lives up to the tenets of truth and justice then alone can the children learn these human values.

Value education, thus a broader concept of moral education (a traditional term) for which strategies needs to be planned as per the availability of time, environment and other desired resources. Curricular & Co-curricular Activities, Sports, NCC, Scouting and Guiding, Mountaineering, Tracking, Excursion and Club activities like; Integrity club, Diksha club, Eco club etc. may serve the purpose of inculcation of desired values among the students and the formation of their character.

The main purpose of value oriented education is to develop moral values, mental & social values, good manners and personality of the students along with making them good citizens who may share their responsibilities in the changing setup of the society in order to give the desired shape and image to the society and the country at large. It is not only for students but also for parents, individuals and in fact for all citizens and the whole society has to be involved in the program of value oriented education.

Inculcation on Values in Education:

A value is what is desired or sought. It stands for ideas human society live for. Values include all common religious beliefs & teachings, moral traits of humans, philosophies of life and political ideologies etc., which help in sustaining the society and its culture. Values are part and parcel of the philosophy of a nation and the national educational system, since they are the guiding principles which enable us to make suitable adjustment with our own culture. Today it is urgently needed to pay increased attention to the inculcation of right values among the students at all stages of education. Values may be inculcated in education through the existing curriculum (classroom teaching & practical activity method), co-curricular activities & games and Incidental learning method (Role modeling) & socialized techniques (Project method). Educationalists and teachers must play an important role in such programs, since on their shoulders rests a major share of the responsibility of shaping the future generation, who are in close contact with their teacher community. There are a few approaches that we could adopt in order to achieve this extremely important target of imparting life-long values to our students’ impressionable minds.

Morning Assembly & Community prayer in the school is not just an early morning gathering to start a typical school day but also plays an immense role in making personalities and inculcating faith in the almighty and getting acquainted in the power of praying. A “thought for the day” following community prayers goes a long way to propagate our extra rich Indian culture and feelings of brotherhood, forgiveness and patience in our students. Community songs in morning gathering develop shared values and respect for communal & regional harmony and unity in diversity. Celebration of national festivals at the assembly time and time to time mention of freedom fighters and national heroes inspires the developing generation to develop a feeling of patriotism and to realize their future responsibility of protecting their motherhood from adverse situations and to contribute their efforts to make this earth a better place to live on.

Good literature is an indispensable tool for imparting good value education to our younger generation on whom rest our hopes. Nice story-books with implicit moral education are very useful which are never dictated rather imbibed. Sufficient numbers of such books of various levels of understanding are a must for every school library. Even more important is the free accessibility and compulsory circulation of such books among students through class libraries and various other methods. It is an extremely important function of the school principal to ascertain that these plans are implemented. It is impossible to achieve the same without the cooperation of school librarian, many of whom are already playing this key role with dynamism and enthusiasm, Acquainting our students with special schemes, such as NCC, NSS and BS&G and to encourage their active participation in the same helps a great deal in arousing their inclination to help to the underprivileged and to acquire the sportsmanship spirit respectively. We tend to underestimate these aspects but the reality is what these capabilities make a man in its truest sense. Social service programs as a part of the curriculum (SUPW) arranged according to the resources available cater to the aforementioned objective. Art and Music teachers have enormous scope to develop good habits and human values among students through their teaching. Guest lectures by the excellent role models from the society, and by some of the competent staff members including the head of the institution inspires the tender and impressionable minds and effectively teaches them the virtues of good conduct, courtesy, kindness, helpfulness and obedience of elders. I personally think it is rather urgent to lay emphasis on this particular issue. It is rightly said “Honesty is the best policy”, and this value should be inculcated in the students with the help of success stories from our scriptures. Sanskrit shlokas represent a treasure of such motivating, heart-warming and memorable stories with golden message of lifetime. Knowing and respecting all religions and patience & tolerance in behavior go indeed a long way to help percolate the values imparted by all of these in our kids. To become future good citizens who shall bring us pride, our young ones should be consciously trained to have a priority consideration for the feelings, rights and wishes of others, so that they may letter on enjoy smooth sailing in life, with minimized mutual friction among their fellow-workers and to avoid making social blunders, for instances egoism, selfishness, ill-temper and arrogance.

The most realistic and effective approach to accomplish these aims is through exemplification. It leaves a much more meaningful and permanent impact on these growing minds to adopt the demonstrative method. For instance, a principal or teacher reaching the school on time and following meticulous professionalism automatically sets the standards in a non-verbal, yet extremely effective way to the younger lot, who by their very nature, mimic the standards set in front of them. We can make this fact work in favour of our mission to build a healthy society, simply by setting standards worth following. 

Although the list of the strategies designed to achieve our mission of developing a better nation with better future citizens may be endless, I would like to conclude here with some of these simple, yet effective strategies to guide us along, and also would like to invite innovative suggestions in this direction. Let us join hands in seeking the best possible results through reminding ourselves to channelize our efforts and energies to pursue our goal.

” Education without values is like flower without fragrance.”

Written by :

Ambrish Kumar Gupta

Principal

Kendriya Vidyalaya Rajkot. Gujarat.

Email- akgkvs@gmail.com

Education- M.A. in Ancient Indian History & Archaeology, B.ED.

NET Qualified in History, Archaeology, Indian Culture.