Value Education
  1. Introduction 
  • According to T. Roosevelt, “To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.” The supreme end of education is expert discernment in all things – the power to tell the good from the bad, the genuine from the counterfeit, and to prefer the good and the genuine to the bad and the counterfeit.
  • The Hindu vision of life gives four goals, ideals and core values for a better quality of human life. They are artha (economic values of wealth), kama (psychological values of pleasure), dharma (moral values) and moksha (liberation). These four goals embody the formulation of human values.
  • Right living is reached only through value education which only stands against cardinal sins as Mahatma Gandhi has cautioned us: “Pleasure without conscience; Politics without principles; Prayer without devotion; Education without character; Wealth without work; Science without humanity; And commerce without morality.”
  1. The Context 
Today youngsters are confused because of the change in value system in the society and lead them to many dilemmas. Due to liberalization, industrialization and globalization rapid changes are occurring in almost all social sciences. The so called philosophical foundations of India are declining day to day with the country in a state of social turbulence, the goals and functions of formal education need to be reassessed and updated.
  1. What are Values?
  • Values are principles, fundamental convictions, and ideals, standards of life which act as general guide to behaviour or as a reference point in decision making. Values are beliefs about what is right and what is wrong and what is important in life. Value literally means something that has a price, precious, dear and worthwhile, one is ready to sacrifice for.
  • It is a set of principles which guide the standard of behaviour. Values are desirable and held in esteem. They give strength to a person’s character by occupying a central place in his life. It reflects  ones attitudes, choices, decisions, judgments, relationships, dreams and vision.
  • The guiding principle of life which are conducive to all value development. It is like the rails which keep the train on track. Without values, life will be chaotic.
  • Values are virtues, ideals and qualities on which actions and beliefs are based. Values are guiding principles that shape our world outlook, attitudes and conduct. The moral values present a true perspective of the development of any society or nation. They tell us to what extent a society or nation has developed itself. 
  1. Definitions of Value Education:
  • According to Perry (1968), “Value means the relation of an object to a valuing subject.”
  • According to Hindzay (1966), “ By values we mean a person’s idea of what is desirable, what he actually wants”
  • In the words of John Dewey (1966), “Value education means primarily to prize to esteem to appraise, holding it dear and also the act of passing judgment upon the nature and amount of its value as compared with something else”. 
  1. Need for Value Education
Mahatma Gandhi found that there is a great deal of moral degradation in the society.
The main causes of moral degeneration are:
  • Lack of respect for the sanctity of human life.
  • Breakdown of parental control of children in families
  • Lack of respect for authority, seen through the brazen breaking of the law and total disregard for rules and regulations
  • Crime and corruption
  • Abuse of alcohol and drugs
  • Abuse of women and children, and other vulnerable members of society.
  • Lack of respect for other people and property. 
Other reasons for the need of VE are:
  • to teach the values of the culture and society
  • to enable them to distinguish between right and wrong
  • to form the conscience of youngsters
  • to continue the traditions of the society
  • to make meaningful the practices and beliefs
  • to connect to every human being in the right way
To solve all these type problems it is necessary to know the main causes of the above problems. We know today children are tomorrow’s citizens. If we give good education to the present day children, the future of the next generations will be well. In Gandhiji’s opinion education is the solution for all types of the problems. Now we are living in the modern century. If we use science and technology in the proper way it is not difficult for us to solve all the problems of the non-moral and value things.
The main object of the study is to inculcate moral and value based education in schools and colleges and to know the attitude of intermediate students towards moral values.
  1. Objectives of VE
The following objectives of VE are identified:
  1. Full development of child’s personality in its physical, mental, emotional and spiritual aspects.
  2. Inculcation of good manners and responsibility and cooperative citizenship.
  3. Developing respect for individual and society.
  4. Inculcating a spirit of patriotism and national integration.
  5. Developing a democratic way of thinking and living.
  6. Developing tolerance towards and understanding of different religious faith.
  7. Developing a sense of human brotherhood at social, national and international levels.
  8. Helping children to have faith in themselves and in some supernatural power and order that is supposed to control this universe and human life.
  9. Enabling children to make  moral decision on the basis of sound moral principles.
7. Types of Values
Values however are either innate or acquired.
Innate values are our inborn divine virtues such as love, peace, happiness, mercy and compassion as well as the positive moral qualities such as respect, humility, tolerance, responsibility, cooperation, honesty and simplicity.
Acquired values are those external values adopted at your “place of birth” or “place of growth” and are influenced by the immediate environment. Examples of acquired values are one’s mode of dress, cultural customs, traditions, habits and tendencies.
  1. Categorization of Values
There are a number of different categories into which values can be placed.
  • Personal values: Personal values are those you take for yourself and which constitute a critical part of your values and are apparent in attitudes, beliefs, and actions. Personal values may be prioritized, such as honesty then responsibility then loyalty and so on.
  • Social values: Social values are those which put the rights of wider groups of people first. This may include equality, justice, liberty, freedom, and national pride. These are often instilled into us when we were young.
  • Political values: Political values are ideological beliefs about the best way to govern a country or organization, for example through welfare, democracy and civic responsibility.
  • Economic values: Economic values are those around money, and may include beliefs around ownership of property, contributing to the common good (taxes!), the balance of supply and demand and so on.
  • Religious values: Religious values are spiritual in nature and include beliefs in how we should live. 
  1. Factors Influencing the Learning of Values
Hogan (1973) believes that moral behavior is determined by five factors: 
(1) Socialization: becoming aware as a child of society’s and parents’ rules of conduct for being good.
 (2) Moral judgment: learning to think reasonably about our own ethics and deliberately deciding on our own moral standards.
(3) Moral feelings: the internalization of our moral beliefs to the degree that we feel shame and guilt when we fail to do what we “should.”
(4) Empathy: the awareness of other people’s situation, feelings, and needs so that one is compelled to help those in need.
(5) Confidence and knowledge: knowing the steps involved in helping others and believing that one is responsible for and capable of helping.
  1. Value Education in India
In the history of VE we see rather a slow development of the system in India. In the 1980s, the government was more responsive to the needs of VE in our schools.
  • Ancient India. Value Education in India from the ancient times has held a prime place of importance. From the gurukul stage the child not only learnt skills of reading and archery but more the philosophy of life in relation with its impermanence. Hence education in India was born of this vision to achieve one’s experience in the absolute as a spark of the divine and in this process practice of one’s duty accompanies the acquisition of knowledge.
  • In the modern school system value education, was termed moral education or moral science.
  • British were absolutely neutral  in their policy towards religion and value education.
  • CABE – (1943-46) emphasized  spiritual land moral education. It was the responsibility of home and community.
  • Committee on Emotional Integration (1961)  pointed out that the science students should have at least some background of humanities; it opined that there should be a compulsory paper on India’s cultural heritage.
  • Education Commission (1964-66)  recommended moral, social and spiritual values at all levels.
  • UNESCO (1972) felt that the education system should promote values of world peace and international understanding and unity of mankind.
  • National Policy on Education (NPE 1986)  proposed readjustments in curriculum to make education a forceful tool to inculcate social and moral values; to eliminate obscurantism, fanaticism, superstition, illiteracy and fatalism.
The National Policy on Education (NPE), 1986 envisages a national system of education based on a National Curricular Framework containing a common core along with other components that are flexible.
The common core includes the history of India’s freedom movement, the constitutional obligations and other content essential to nurture national identity.
These elements will cut across subject areas and will be designed to promote values such as India’s common cultural heritage, etiquette, egalitarianism, democracy and secularism, equality of the sexes, protection of the environment, removal of social barriers, observance of the small family norm and inculcation of the scientific temper.

10. Implementing the above in the school systems under the Central control.

On the basis of the guidelines given in the National Curricular Framework (NCF) for Elementary and Secondary Education, brought out by NCERT in 1988 after adoption of NPE, 1986, the NCERT revised the entire school syllabi and brought out revised textbooks for classes I to XII. The main focus of the revised syllabi of the NCERT for different stages of school is on the development of knowledge, values and attitudes conducive to actualising the student’s potential, for enabling effective participation in the national development endeavour.
Keeping in view the NCERT textbooks and curricular guidelines, the State Governments are expected to undertake measures to revise their school syllabi/ textbooks for introduction in their school system in a phased manner.

 11. Initiatives from the Planning Commission

  • As recommended by the Planning Commission’s Core Group on Value Orientation of Education, a Standing Committee was set up for promotion and coordination of value orientation of education at the school and higher education stages.
  • This standing committee further constituted sub-groups, one of them for schools and education, to formulate plans of action to implement various recommendations made in the core group report
  • The plan of action of the school sub-group broadly covers the following areas i. e. integration of elements of value education into:
  • Textbooks/textual material
  • Non-textual educational materials such as audio- visual materials, posters, charts, stories, picture books, etc.
  • Extra-curricular activities.
  • In-service and pre-service training of teachers.
  1. Approaches to teaching VE
Broadly there are two approaches to teaching ve:
  1. Integrated approach and
  2. Curricular Approach.
Integrated approach: is also known as indirect method. This is adopted by many public schools. In this approach, values are integrated and taught through various subjects and activities. For example, physical education imparts values of health, strength, agility, grace etc.
  • Sports teach the values of courage, initiative, rapid decision, action, perseverance, leadership, self control, acceptance of failure and victory.
  • Work Experience: Manual skills, utilizing materials, avoiding wastage, creativity, live in harmony with nature, appreciating art and music
  • Social studies: lives of great men will instruct on courage, patriotism, citizenship, civic sense, hard work, diligence etc.
  • It also makes use of leisure periods, reading books on values, by organizing discussions and debate by eminent scholars,
  • Further it is expected use the incidental method of relating the life of students to various events that take place in the surrounding.
  • Further it depends on the morning assembly, celebration of festivals and other occasions to impart values.
Curricular approach: It is also known as the direct method or formal method. It is adopted by many private schools. In this approach, text books are identified for various levels for teaching the values. It is carried out by teachers through specified number of periods and specified  syllabus.
  1. The role of Teachers
In teaching and inculcating values, the teachers have a great role to play. The following roles are significant:
  1. A teacher has to function as an agent who stimulates, provokes, informs and sensitizes the learners with reference to value situations in life.
  2. Through involving the learners actively in discussion, dialogue and practical activities, the teacher should make them think and reflect on human actions and events.
  3. The teacher should also expose students to works of art, beauty in nature, and in human relationships and actions of moral worth, and develop their moral sensibilities.
  4. They should help in creating an atmosphere of love, trust, cooperation and security in the school conducive to the development of high ideals and values.
  5. They should possess the right qualities of mind and heart necessary for the pursuit of knowledge—love of knowledge, curiosity and desire to know, sincere desire to keep on learning and update knowledge, humility and honesty to admit ignorance.
  6. They should have a sound social philosophy, characterized by social sensitivity, concern for social justice and human rights. It is essential that they carry out their professional obligations in accordance with the highest standards and ethics of the teaching profession.
  7. The institutional processes in the training institution should help teachers acquire these capabilities by providing concrete situations and opportunities and actively involve them in appropriate learning experiences.
  8. They should develop a nationalistic feeling among students.
  9. Create an awareness about the problems of future specially those related  to food, water, energy, environment, pollution,  health and population.
  10. Give equal importance to all students irrespective  of caste, creed, sex and money.
Conclusion: VE is an important aspect of education affecting the students and the society as a whole. Many educators tend to take lightly the proper growth of students. Negligence will be detrimental to the well being of our society on the whole. For adequate inculcation of values, educational institutions need to give support as well. As values are caught more than taught, the students need to grow up in an atmosphere of well being.