Chapter -4 Education And Human Value

Chapter – 4 Education and Human Values

4.1

System of Education: For the past 200 years, many prominent educationists, philosophers and poets have been

criticizing the form of public schooling and insisting that education should be understood as the art of cultivating the moral, emotional, physical, psychological and spiritual dimensions of the developing child. The education system nevertheless remains steeped in institutionalized, centralized and hierarchical frameworks including class room, teacher, textbook and examination system. The system of education does not provide adequate attention to:  Individual and sociological diversity  Self organization in attending to individual , cultural and community needs  The pleasure of unevaluated experience of learning and discovery.  Being in the moment: the capacity to immerse rather than being in split attention due to anxiety. The ultimate objective of education for children is none other than the well-being, which amounts to the realization of one’s physical, emotional, mental, social and spiritual potentialies.

These do not

enter into education as something foreign to its nature but fundamental to both the conception and practice. The question then arises: Is there education which is value free or value neutral? This question remains unattended today. At the same time, there are certain fundamental issues which are important for human beings. Such issues relate to happiness, welfare, aspirations, goals and success in life. Ultimately, there is often lack of clearly defined focus and conscious commitment towards inculcation of core universal values in schools. The framework of values can be visualized from two angles- self and society. Viewed from the point of view of self, the values lead to make the self a “Good person” and from the point of view of society, the values that needs to be followed by an individual for the ‘Good’ of the society. The Indian philosophers have laid the importance of ‘Self’ as key to the transformation of the

society. Self is the product and part of the total human existence. Survival of the self depends on the ability to understand the importance of living together to accept responsibility towards others and respect the differences. This is now recognized as one of the four pillars of education as promoted by the UNESCO. It is now acknowledged that education is a process of bringing about the desirable changes in the behaviour of an individual in terms of knowledge, skills, attitude and values. 4.2 Present Scenario: In today’s competitive world the primary objective of the educational institutions is to provide maximum amount of information to the students with the hope that they will memorize, understand and pass the examinations with highest possible marks. The system of education completely overlooks the value education. In fact the education of mankind, started with the inculcation of human values. Worldly education incorporating science and humanities came in later. The dimensions of the morality unfortunately took a back seat in the education system. Today man has acquired knowledge bereft of wisdom. It fails to enable men to find meaning in their lives. In the words of Elbert Einstein “…… perfection of means and confusion of the end seems to characterize our age”. This situation, especially in India is due to two reasons. First, that the value education is equated with sectarian indoctrination. Second, those values need not be taught because they can be picked up from the environment in which one lives. Unfortunately, the environment is full of strife, crime, violence, corruption and nepotism. What kind of impression young minds will carry is being forgotten. It is also said that values are picked up by looking at the role models- as to how they behave, what values they cherish. Again, it is dependent upon socio-economic and political climate. During the period of independence, Mahatma Gandhi’s charismatic personality created a great influence on people. The masses imbibed the values of sacrifice, non-violence and patriotism during the freedom movement. Today, these values are not observed in the society, because there are no role models from whom inspiration can be drawn and values imbibed. In view of the above mentioned, a proper value based education seems to be the only alternative. Philosophers point out that the process of imparting education will always remain

subjective so long as the teacher teaches the students. The personality of the teacher plays an indirect but important role in thought process of students. Thus there is continuous transference of values from teacher to teach. Therefore the question: Can the values be taught? Becomes irreverent because values are being implicitly taught. If this is the case then why not the values be taught with a conscious effort. Such an effort is required to be made for making a value based society. These days, the scientific and technological developments have changed the perception of man towards material progress which has no limits. The greed for the material progress has given rise to several problems that have now become critical for to the human existence on earth- namely pollution, and global warming. With the wide use of information and communication technology, the world has become a global village but this has also posed the issues of social justice, equity, poverty alleviation etc. Since education can prepare a person to think and act so as to face the emerging challenges of life, it ought to include the principles and core values of life by which humans can live peacefully and happily. 4.3 Man Making Education: Swami Vivekananda while talking about goals of education has said “We must have life building, manmaking, character- making assimilation of ideas. If you have assimilated five ideas and made them your life and character, you have more education than any man who has got by heart a whole library”. Such an education has to include value education. The value education has a profound positive impact based on culture, national integrity and universal brotherhood. The development of values through education is to be encouraged. Since all the moral values are non-controversial, rational and secular in nature therefore they can be acceptable by all sections of society universally. In a way, the human values and education are closely related, one having its inevitable effect on the other. Education has been one of the most important instruments created by the human society to bring about awareness in human beings. Considering the current situation, peace, secularism, social justice and democracy to which mankind has ideological commitment have come under severe strain. Perhaps it is if due to lack of man-making

education. The man-making education may also be called as total education which should include the three components namely human values, life skills and knowledge. The life will become meaningful and progressive thereafter. If progress also means increasing control of environment, then who can deny that there exist inner environment within every human being in addition to the external environment. The overall progress would imply control of both, the external and inner environment. There is a practice in the education system that the character certificate is issued at the time of issuing Institute Leaving Certificate. Usually it is written and signed in every certificate that “To the best of my knowledge, the student bears a good moral character”. It is considered to be a mere formality and goes as one of the ritualistic document. By incorporating and strengthening the value based education, the importance of the character certificate will enhance and will become true reflection of one’s virtues acquired during the period of value inculcation in an educational institute. Throughout the world, a question is looming before the educationists that what kind of education is needed today to make the tomorrow of mankind sustainable? The world which is accelerating technologically and economically, the societal and environmental changes which are becoming critical create a feeling of uncertainty and fear. The solution to this situation is to inculcate the human values in youth to lead the life purposely, successfully and happily. 4.4 Concept of Value Education: The concept of value education has been existing over a long period of time. It is normally believed that a structured curriculum for transcending to cognitive, affective and psychomotor domain for over all development of individual, and society forms the part of value education. There is a great saying “Commerce without morality, science without humanity, and politics without principles and education without values is not only useless but also very dangerous”. Since every profession is based on education, the importance of

values in education becomes self evident. In India, these days’

schools and colleges have become factories for making engineers, doctors, lawyers, economists etc. The

students aim at securing high percentage of marks in the examinations. During this process it is forgotten to make the students good human beings by providing them value education. Mahatma Gandhi once said “education without values leads to criminality; educated persons have wider opportunities to indulge in crime and that too committing them most efficiently and technically”. India has kept pace in science and technology with advanced nations but shown slower pace in incorporating an effective value based education system even though there is a strong heritage of value system. A major problem of corruption existing these days is the result of incomplete education- devoid of human values. With the advancement of technology, man is developing mechanistic mind. The emotions, feelings, empathy, compassion and other human qualities are receding day by day. In order to take care of this situation, the universal and ethical values such as compassion, courage, tolerance, integrity etc become necessary for preparing individuals to maintain the self and society. So far as self or individual is concerned, the consciousness to become healthy physically and mentally, to possess good mannerism and the sense of civic discipline needs to create. Such consciousness is more appealing to heart than mind. The traditional lecture method of teaching values will not work. This ought to be replaced with experiential learning. As it is some times said values cannot be taught they are to be caught. Fortunately, even today India is endowed with many role models who are embodiment of Indian culture and human values. So far as teaching is concerned, great philosophers and scientists have expressed their thoughts as follows: Swami Vivekananda has said “No one was ever taught by another. Each of us has to teach himself . The external teacher offers only the suggestion which rouses the internal teacher(Self) to understand things”. Socrates had said “I cannot teach anybody anything I can only make them think.” Shri Aurobindo had said “The first principle of teaching is that nothing can be taught.”

Galileo had said “You cannot teach people anything you only help them discover it within themselves.” Einstein had said “I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.” From the above sayings, it becomes obvious that the role of a teacher is that of facilitator, guide and coach to enable the students to learn. In the realm of education of values it is even more applicable. 4.5 Value Based Education: Value based education means that during the normal process of education in educational institutions human values are cultivated in the students. The objective of such an education would be to make a complete human being, who is well developed in all the facets of human existence. In India the value based education has been advocated by all eminent personalities including Swami Vivekanand, Shri Rabindranath Tagore, Swami Dayanand Saraswati, Maharshi Aurobindo and others. Swami Vivekanand had said “Education is not the amount of information that is put into your brain and runs riot there, undigested all your life. If education were identical with information, the libraries would be the greatest sages in the world and encyclopedias the Rishis. Education is the manifestation of divine perfection already existing in man”. A need for value based education synthesizing human values and scientific and technological knowledge is now being felt at national and international level. This can be achieved by appropriate design and delivery of the curriculum. In India, National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) has come out with the framework of value education in schools. It includes the vision, objectives and benchmarks for implementation and assessment of value education. The framework recognizes that a single model cannot be made applicable in a multi-regional and multi-cultural society prevailing across the country. The core value education revolves around health and hygiene, self-development, social responsibility, compassion

and creative thinking. The framework envisages involvement and support of parents in providing education for values. It also suggests guide lines for implementation and evaluation for ascertaining the values inculcated, by maintaining the record of the progress on implementation of education in values in the form of portfolio. The National Policy on Education (1986) as revised in 1992 and its Programme of Action (POA) 1992 identified the goals of educational development and the strategies adopted for achieving these goals. It has laid considerable emphasis on value education by high lighting the need to make education an effective and forceful tool for nurturing human values in the youth. Education in Human Values (EHV) was envisaged around core values namely truth, love, peace, Righteous Conduct and Non-violence inherent in Indian Constitution as well. The Government of India, with the help and assistance of some NGOs prepared schemes aiming at strengthening human value inputs in the educational process at all levels starting from elementary to higher education. Greater emphasis was placed on the following:  Inculcation of human values at school level when the mind of the child is highly impressionable.  Mainstreaming of core values into educational transaction at all levels of education.  Involvement of parents and community so as to build support base for developing and strengthening the value system. 4.6 Training of Teachers in “Value Education” The need for training of teachers for imparting value education arises as the logical sequel to the introduction of value education in educational institutions. It can also be called “Value Orientation of Teacher’s Education”. Since education is a process of bringing about “Desirable Changes in the way one thinks feels and acts”, therefore it naturally involves transmission of values leading to personality development, pursuit of knowledge and character building. Accordingly, the teacher has to be trained and oriented so as to become a change agent who stimulates, inspires, informs and sensitizes the students for inculcation of values.

Currently various types of programmes, both pre-service and in-service are being conducted for orientation and training of teachers in value education. Some ‘Lead Institutions’ conduct 3 to 4 weeks residential as well as short duration programmes. However, visible strong impact is yet to be seen in the society. It may be due to the fact that the programme may not have addressed the trainees as professional to perform the role of ‘Value Educator’. Perhaps a critical review of such programme is called for to get the desired results. It has always to be kept in mind that the prime object of education should not be lost under the burden of books. A teacher should teach the students the basic values and ethics in the life. Education is a creative endeavour. It is expected to equip the students with knowledge which is not only materialistic but moral and spiritual as well. The training of teachers therefore should take care of this aspect. Further, it is to be acknowledged that if the teacher is not sound in himself, the education will become ineffective. This becomes more pertinent with respect to value education. It is very important to ensure that during the training programme, the teachers are introduced to the concept of value development and methods and techniques of imparting the values so that they can not only be appreciated and understood but can be emulated from the core of heart by the students. Thus the teachers’ role becomes very significant. 4.7 Education for Aspirations through Values It refers to the part of education that dedicates itself for fulfillment of aspirations through cultivation of values. It need not be emphasized that the education remains incomplete without human values. Policy makers and educators have all along shown the concern and have been trying to discern the pattern of education which fulfill the aspiration and expectations of the public and society. Before proceeding further it is desirable to know basic human aspirations. There are two basic aspirations of human beings:  Happiness  Prosperity

All other aspirations emanate from the above two. It can be said that happiness is the state of mind in which one finds complete harmony. In other words, to be in a state of happiness there should be no conflict and, no contradiction of any kind. If there is conflict, failure, disrespect and similar other situations, one feels unhappy because there is lack of harmony. Thus it may be said that to be in a state of liking is happiness and the state of disliking is unhappiness. Prosperity is the feeling of possessing more than required physical facilities. It is different from wealth. A wealthy person need not be prosperous. Wealth is a physical entity and asset, whereas prosperity is a feeling. Accumulation of more and more wealth may still makes a person deprived. The feeling of prosperity may still be there irrespective of small wealth. To be able to fulfill the basic human aspiration of happiness and prosperity, the right kind of education for value education is required which comprises of understanding harmony at various levels. Harmony with the self, family, society and nature. The core universal human values are the parameters which designate the harmony at various levels. These are applicable to all human beings and have been existing since ages. It is for us to discover them through exploration by self as well as in commonality. Therefore the education for values while being imparted must ensure that they are not enforced either by fear, greed or blind faith. Only proper understanding will help in achieving the aim of education for value. 4.8 Scope of Education for values: Any course on education for values must include the following:

   

The thought The behaviour The work The relationship

At all levels of human living - individual, family, society and nature,

the process of education for

values should be to understand the goal of human life, living relationships, co-existence with nature

through self-exploration in the form of dialogues between teacher and student to begin with, and thereafter within the student himself. Thus the process would initiate a transformation in students’ understanding. The self-exploration will yield as to what is valuable for the self. Here it is desirable to know the meaning of self-exploration. It is the process of knowing “What you are” and “What you really want to be”. Thus it is a kind of dialogue within oneself which leads to self-evolution. It can be said that thoughts transform into behavior; the behavior affects the work and work results into creation of relationship with human beings, animals, plants and entire environment. Thus the scope of education for values is vast like an ocean. 4.9 Development of Education for Values in India: The development of education for values in India began during the independence movement under leadership of Mahatma Gandhi who said “Your beliefs become your thoughts, your thoughts become your words, your words become your actions, your actions become your habits, your habits become your values and your values become your destiny”. After independence, the policy makers and educators have all along been thinking and doing the needful for the development of education for values. The National Commission of Secondary Education in the year 1952-53 came out with a document on Moral Education. The University Education Commission in the year 1962 published a report with the objective of evolving a national way of life which included the principles of human values. In the year 1966, the Education Commission published a report recommending Direct Moral Instructions for the education and national development. The National Policy on Education was framed in the year 1986 which expressed concern over the erosion of essential human values, and advocated education for the cultivation of moral and social values. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) in the year 1997 published a Handbook for teachers to teach human values to the students of secondary schools, to make the educational process inclusive of value education. A National Curriculum Frame work for School Education was prepared in the year 2000, with the objective of integrating value education into the

curriculum. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) revised the value education handbook for Teachers in the year 2003. The national Council for Education Research and Training (NCERT) in the year 2005 also prepared the National Curriculum Frame work for School Education emphasizing the commitment to education for values, and revised it in the year 2011. A Complete kit comprising of this revised Handbook, value cards and CD of songs based on human values has been prepared by the CBSE in the year 2012. The same is being used for imparting education for values to the school students in most of the schools in India today. In addition to the government actions for imparting education for values to the school students, several NGOs in India are engaged in the task of imparting education for values at different level. Ramakrishna Mission, one of the most renowned spiritual NGO is carrying out the Awakened Citizens Programme which is a three year graded value education programme for students studying in schools. The programme has been started in the year 2014. It is designed to enable students to discover and learn human values. The programme is currently running in more than 750 schools at various places in India, Sri Sathya Sai Sadhna Trust another great spiritual organization is running Education in Human Values (EHV) programme for school children across the country. 4.10 Value Education Programmes in Higher Education: The higher education in India in its present form is not able to adequately empower students to face the challenges of life. It mostly leads them to a blind race for the jobs that are intellectually and mentally unfulfilling, and the material wealth that breeds chaos. Some of the Universities and institutions of higher learning have realized this imbalance. Accordingly, they have introduced programmes of education in human values. However, much more needs to be done to enable the young graduates to think independently, rationally and act proactively to meet the upcoming challenges. The perception that with the requisite amount of knowledge and skills of the profession

acquired, one can manage the life is in itself a misconception. The human value programme of education can provide holistic inputs towards preparing the mind to establish the essential harmony in human relationships and behavioural pattern. Technology can tell how to do things which one wants to do, without understanding why to do and what is the value of the work being done to the society. Without such understanding the student community tends to get oriented towards superficial, glamourous and consumerist life style with a false sense of satisfaction (or dejection at times) in the competitive and oneupmanship world. 4.10.1 Mode of Education: The properly designed human value education programmes will encourage the students to build relationships in the rule based society. The programmes of human value education need not be in the form of monolog lectures. Instead, they should be conducted through discussions in small groups mentored by faculty members who believe and practice value system. During every session the faculty member may introduce a topic and initiate the discussion. The role of the faculty member is to point out the essential elements for creating an understanding. Depending upon the nature of the topic, the worksheets, home assignments, case studies, role plays and other activities can be made use of. While discussing different topics the faculty can encourage the students to connect themselves with their own self to do the self analysis and self observation. Such observations and analyses can be shared and discussed within the group. The discussions will provide support to the students in performing actions commensurate to their beliefs and values. 4.10.2 Situations for Study: As a result of the conduction of the value education programmes the following situations may become apparent Individual Level- An understanding at the individual level about one’s state of happiness or dissatisfaction, body and mental health and sense of achievement.

 Family Level- An understanding about the relationship with the family members, sense of mutual belongingness, sharing and caring, love and hatred.  Society Level- An understanding of interpersonal relationships, co-operation, opposition, peer pressure and social status.  Environmental and Universal Level- An understanding about national feelings, peace, natural resources, and ecological imbalances dues to human activities. 4.10.3 Milestones for Achievements: The programmes of human value education will enable the achievement of following milestones:  Critical ability to differentiate between essence and form, between reality and superficiality and between values based and value less life.  Understanding of the self with respect to others, meaning of human life and the relationship between the five basic human elements namely physical, emotional, social and spiritual, thereby the development of art of living, thinking, feeling, behaving and realizing.  Commitment for a valuable life full of harmony, joy and happiness and determination to pursue with patience the life journey with self confidence, courage and conviction. 4.10.4 Process of Evaluation: The programme can be a pas credit course. Thus there may be only pass/fail grade. The degree of participation in discussions, report preparation, completion of the home assignments and other assigned activities may be used as the basis for evaluation. Pass grade can be given to the students who satisfy the above requirements. It is expected that conduction of human value education programmes in the higher education will produce the kind of youth man power that will be able to change the present scenario of society replete with corruption, nepotism, anarchy, selfishness, violence and intolerance to that of compassion, sacrifice, love , non-violence and orderliness.

4.11 Integrated Value Education: So far, the concept of value education, value based education, and the education fo values at various levels from childhood to young adult age, including programmes of value education in higher educational institutes have been discussed. However, an integrated approach ensuring the acquisition of essential moral values by every person needs to be developed and implemented by all concerned. In ancient India integrated value education was imparted by combining all facets of life in the form of ‘Shastras’ – the books of knowledge and skills, which included grammar, philosophy, spirituality, science, maths, logic, medicines, arts , crafts etc. The human values were imbibed through fables, parables and stories. ‘Panchatantra’, ‘Hitopodesh’ and ‘Jataka-Kathas’ are some of the books about human values which still exist in India literature and have been translated in many languages of the world . Till the medieval era India’s education system and was held in the highest esteem in the world. But with the British rule the education in India became lop sided and touched the lowest ebb. In fact in 1835 Lord Macaulay’s elaboration in British Parliament after his India tour was the beginning of a planned move to replace the integrated value education. He said to the Parliament the following: “I have travelled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief. Such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such caliber, that I do not think we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage, and, therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for it Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their selfesteem , their native self- culture, and they will become what we want them a truly dominated nation”. India has suffered for Macauley’s education system. Though the English education opened a gateway to a plethora of information, the nation lost its integrated value education system. Now

it is being realized that without an effective integrated value education systems, the crimes, violence, dissatisfaction, physical and mental diseases cannot be controlled. For this purpose, the active involvement of individuals, societies and educational institutions is called for. If the individuals recognize self, develop positive attitude and show respect for the core universal values; the educational institutions provide educational inputs in the form of value education and social organizations play a proactive role in spreading the feeling of compassion, empathy and tolerance, then persons of balanced personality can immerge out. This is the essence of the integrated value education. All the three stake holders namely individuals, educational institutions and society ought to be actively engaged in the task of inculcation of human values. Figure 4.1 shows the concept of integrated value education having interdependence with individual, education institutions and society. Each of them interacts with the other in terms of their respective key areas. Such an interaction can result into not only the development of balanced personality but also of the kind of societies full of compassion, empathy and tolerance. The delivery of such an integrated value education programme of course is not so easy because it involves the closed co-ordination and cooperation of individual’s institutions and societies.

Integrated value education Figure 4.1 However, this concept is worth experimenting. Even a small success in such programme is likely to create a big impact on the future of next generation. With this integrated approach, it will be possible to develop

human beings who will enable themselves to impart purpose and direction to their lives to meet the future challenges with clarity of thought, caring heart and confidence to initiate change. The integrated value education will provide an appreciation of the past, full involvement in the present and confident movement into future with freedom and courage. The programme of integrated value education may be carefully chosen to be in harmony with various stages of formal education and activities of social organizations. Starting from the tender age of 6 years to young youthful age of 20 years and ahead, imitation, imagination and inculcation of values will become the stepping stone to success.