Value based higher Education

Education is a unique quality of mankind. It is education that makes human being to act their part in this world successfully. Education is a very important condition for the development of the ‘whole man’ and an important weapon for accelerating the well-being and prosperity of the world in all direction. Education is a lifelong process which continues from womb to tomb. Education has many different meanings and definitions. The parents, the teachers, the farmers, house wives,  administers, merchants, religious preachers, military men, politicians, artists and artisans etc. interpret the term in their own ways. Hence the meaning of education is complex in nature. Some definitions of education are given below to understand the aims of Education.

•  “Education is bringing out of the ideas of universal validity which are latent in the mind of every man.”  - Socrates
• “Education is the creation of a sound mind in a sound body. It develops man’s faculty, especially his mind so that he may be able to enjoy the contemplation of supreme truth, goodness and beauty of which perfect happiness essentially consists”. – Aristotle.
• “Education means the manifestation of the divine perfection, already existing in man.” -Swamy Vivekananda.
• “By education, I mean an all-round drawing out of the best in child and man, body, mind    and spirit.” -Gandhi                 .

“Man can fly in the sky like a bird spreading its wings, and move easily at depth of ocean like a fish, but he is not able to live on earth like a man.”

It is very clear from the above said and other definitions that the ultimate aim of education is nourishing – developing – a socially acceptable and balanced personality – citizen – for the nation, for the whole world. Here comes the importance of value education which is inseparable from education. Such an education consists of , man-making and character building programme; training of body, mind and soul; quest for integrating culture and technology; and hunt for that goal which liberates man from fear, inertia, ignorance and superstition. So the real education should combine science and ethics. It should cut across all narrow barriers and help humans to reach their destiny, which is nobility of intellect and sublimity of soul. Now the nobility of intellect has helped man to land on moon, split atom, scratch ocean floors, revive collapsing heart and so many other wonders but human being needs sublimity of soul as well to live together on this planet. If we are borrowing words of a Malayalam orator “Man can fly in the sky like a bird spreading its wings, and move easily at depth of ocean like a fish, but he is not able to live on earth like a man.” In the words of Prof. D. S. Kothari “Science and Technology are exploding but wisdom is imploding. It is shrinking. Knowledge is expanding and human personality is shrinking. Because of the explosion of knowledge and implosion of wisdom, we find various kinds of grave aberrations, imbalance and calamities.” It is here that we are compelled to rethink about our existing educational system. We the Indians are proud of our good literacy rate but what about our social, cultural and moral life?  We can see that the main protagonists of communalism, rape, adultery, adulteration, looting, theft, killing, child abuse & exploitation, murdering, corruption, substance abuse, and all other anti-social activities are so-called educated people.

“We have passion but no compassion, we have goods but no God, we have speed but no direction, we have production but no proper distribution and we have religion but no spirituality.”

We can quote the words of a columnist: “We have passion but no compassion, we have goods but no God, we have speed but no direction, we have production but no proper distribution and we have religion but no spirituality.”  If we are looking into the world we can obviously say that it is not the phenomena of India only but of the whole world. That is why the educationists all over the world and agencies like UNESCO suggest so many measures for moral and value education. Some of them are as follows:

• Provision for spiritual and moral instruction for building up of the character of the young should be the responsibility of the home and community  : – The Central Advisory Board of Education ( 1943 – 46)
• Moral and spiritual instruction at the university stage too recommended by The University Education Commission ( 1948)
• Moral and religious instruction from the elementary to the university stage was recommended by Sri Prakas Committee on Religious and Moral Education (1959).
• Every student who takes up science should have some background in the humanities and should study a compulsory paper on Indian cultural heritage, just as student in humanities should have some knowledge in general science. – The Committee on Emotional Integration (1961).
•  The Indian Education commission (1964 – 1966) recommended instruction on moral, social, and spiritual values at all levels of study.
• The UNESCO in its report of the international commission in 1972 suggested that educational systems should encourage the promotion of the values of world peace, international understanding and unity of mankind.
• The important resolutions of the first National Moral Educational Conference (1981)  were :

a) A course on moral education in all classes up to the high school stage in all schools should be run inculcating moral and human values in students to make them better more useful members of society b) Moral education should be a separate subject; c) The content of moral education should include common ethical teachings of all great religions highlighting their unity; d) The syllabus for moral education should include stories, illustrations and events mainly from our own country and its literature from various religions, so that it leads to national integration; e) In higher classes a course in comparative religion should be introduced as it will promote social harmony, a liberal attitude and a less fanatical approach to religion. The National Policy on Education (1981) stressed the need for readjustments in the curriculum in order to make education a forceful tool for the cultivation of social and moral values. It also emphasized the combative role of value education in helping to eliminate obscurantism, religious fanaticism, violence, superstition and fatalism.

The National Policy on Education (1981) stressed the need for readjustments in the curriculum in order to make education a forceful tool for the cultivation of social and moral values. It also emphasized the combative role of value education in helping to eliminate obscurantism, religious fanaticism, violence, superstition and fatalism.

Even though all the education commissions and committees recommended strongly for the value education nothing happened in the practical situation in this matter. More over all the persons who are working in the field of education are crying for moral values. We have taken so many steps for the quality and quantity improvement of education. We have introduced and completed the projects like DPEP, SSA. The project DPEP was introduced in 1994 – 95 in 149 districts of India with the help of World Bank. In our country we thoroughly revised the curriculum on the basis modern trends and strategies of education – shifted to constructivist paradigm and continuous and comprehensive evaluation. So many positive changes have occurred in the educational field due to these reforms but what about the values and morality of educated people. It is a big question before us without getting a proper answer. After that we have introduced Sarva Siksha Abhiyaan (SSA) in the year 2003. The project was concentrated on universalisation of education – education for all -. It aims to achieve a General Enrolment Ratio ( GER) of 90 %  up to 8th std. Now the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyaan (RMSA) has been introduced during the 11th five year plan. The project RMSA  concentrated on Secondary Stage and it aims to universalise access and to improve quality of education at secondary stage. It aims to achieve a Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) of 75 % for classes IX – X within five years by providing a secondary school within a reasonable distance of every habitation. It is a truth that by implementing various projects and process like MLL, DPEP, QIP (Quality Improvement Program), SSA, RMSA we achieved improvement and progress both qualitatively and quantitatively to a certain extend up to secondary level. But the Higher Education in our country is still in the miserable condition. It is too late to take steps for the quantitative and qualitative development of Higher Education. Considering this situation Association of Indian Universities (AIU) as a representative body of universities and as a advisory body to the Government of India, play an important role in giving direction to the higher education system of the country. Since the Rastriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyaan (RUSA) scheme is going to be a landmark scheme to improve higher education system. Here I intend to discuss the need for taking steps for ensuring the quality and morality of the educated people. All the documents of educational pro1qajects and programs like DPEP, SSA, QIP, NCF 2005, KCF 2007, RMSA, and RUSA are agreeing to the essentiality of developing values and morality in the society especially among educated youth. But it is very regretful to state that there is not any clear idea or concrete program for developing value awareness or implementing value education in the educational institutions especially in the higher education stage. Concept of Value Based Education

According to Swamy Vivekananda “Education for values should be education for man-making and character building”.

Value is an orientation towards a whole class of goals that are considered important in one’s life. Our education aimed the all-round development i.e. the development of proper attitudes, emotions and character in the learners. It covers all domains like cognitive, affective and psychomotor and all aspects of personality- physical, intellectual, economical, social, political, cultural, moral and spiritual. All true education ultimately involves the spiritual growth from individuality to personality through the process of clarification and assimilation of human values. According to Swamy Vivekananda “Education for values should be education for man-making and character building”. Man-making education means the development of one’s personality with the consciousness that one must be a responsible and purposeful servant of his community. Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi, Sri Aurobindo, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan and all other thinkers and educationists laid special emphasis upon the development of spiritual aspects and values through education. Each and every person of the society should be conscious about accountability to himself or herself, to the parents and family, to his or her neighbours, to the society, and more over to the God. A close analysis of education reveals that good education is inseparable from value oriented education which should promote a spirit of service, social sensitiveness, cooperation, sacrifice and high moral character. Such an education consists of :

• Man-making and character building program.
• The training of mind, body, and soul
• The quest for those nobler aims that integrate culture and technology.
•  The hunt for the goal which liberates man from fear, inertia, ignorance, greed and superstition.

Aims of Value Based Education

• Personal growth leading to enhance self-concept is the key principle of value based education.
• The chief aim of the value based education is to achieve maximum purified human resource development so as to improve our total life.
• The important and ultimate aim of value based education is to nourish a socially acceptable person i.e. citizen so as to making him or her able to discharge his or her duties as viceroy of God. It accentuates to train them to maintain a good relationship with their fellow creatures including human being, with the nature i.e. the environment, and with the Creator.

Methodology of teaching values

We should realize that value education is a complex process which involves developing the ability to think in terms of values, the ability to do the ‘right’ thing and also the ability to feel the emotions.

There is an old saying that “values are to be caught and not to be taught.” If there is a value based ideal and moral society it may be correct. The growing generation will get ample situation to see and practice a moral life. They can catch values of elderly people and either by imitation or by special efforts they can develop appropriate values accepted and respected in the society.  But it is not the present condition. So values have to be taught as well as caught. The Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget, Lawrence Kohlberg, so many other psychologists and educationists have put forward various methods for inculcating values among students. Value education is a matter of ‘training of the heart’ and consists in developing the ‘right’ feelings and emotions. We should realize that value education is a complex process which involves developing the ability to think in terms of values, the ability to do the ‘right’ thing and also the ability to feel the emotions. Therefore we cannot argue for a single method for value education, variety of methods has to be employed. First of all the institution should have a value code.  The strategies for value education can be classified as direct and indirect. Direct Strategies for Value Education:

• This has to be done with a prescribed graded curriculum and a graded series of textbooks.
• Purposeful talk on selected subject is another direct method.
• Purposeful open discussion on personal examples of students and teachers.

Indirect Strategies for Value Education:

• So many various incidents occur both at home and institutions and even in the community. The concerned students involved in the incident should be separately called and proper advice can be given.
• Deliberate group discussion or panel discussion on the ethical issues occurs in the day to day news media.
• Conducting surveys on value issues and prepare critical note on it.
• Critical analysis of day to day departmental and social life.
• Structured observation and closed discussion on it. It may be peer observation, self observation using diary writing etc or observation by the higher authority.
• Speeches in morning assembly or any other gatherings, assigning group work, Interaction with the reputed moral personalities.
• Indirect curricular activities: Teachers or the concerned authority should go through the curriculum and textbook of their respective subjects and find areas which normally evoke value questions. For example in science, pursuit of truth, spirit of enquiry, co-operative efforts, logical thinking, reasoning, cleanliness, existence of God etc. Similarly in mathematics, languages, history etc. there are so many area for value education, but the teachers or other concerned persons have to preplan. More strategies which are appropriate to higher education stages have to be developed by discussion. The teachers and the society have a vital role in inculcating values. It can be discussed later.

If we are looking into the Holy books of various religions we can see that all the religions are arguing for development of values.

It is very important to keep in mind that a balanced development of harmonious and integrated personality is impossible if the educational system does not inculcate proper values and morals. Not only in India but also world – wide arouse a cry for back to basic values and for nourishing human values and morality among the youth. Each and every one who is in the field of education should bear in the mind that human being is not a mere matter or material, but they are the only creature in this world having discriminative power to select their own life style. Thus they can be superior with upright morals and characters by doing great and merciful deeds. Otherwise they will be inferior to the cattle and more harmful than the wild animals by doing mischievous deeds. The Holy Quran says “They have hearts wherewith they understand not, eyes wherewith they see not, and ears wherewith they hear not. They are like cattle, – nay more misguided (than the cattle) : for they are heedless (7:179).  If we are looking into the Holy books of various religions we can see that all the religions are arguing for development of values. India is the country where 99% of people are believers and having a heritage of high values. All the education commissions and educationists in India and all over the world are arguing for value education. Thus the system of higher education must be changed into value based education. We can work together for that and buildup a more strong nation. References: 1. Dr. N. Venkataiah, -Editor- ( 2005) APH Publishing corporation, 5, Ansari road, Darya Ganj, New Delhi – 110002. 2. Dr. Sarayu Prasad Chaube – Some Foundations of Education : Bharath Publications 1957. 3. N. P. Pillai – The Educationsal Aims of Mahathma Gandhi: Kallyan Maudir Publicatiions – 1959. 4. S. S. Chandra K. Sharma – Principles of Education : Atlantic publishers and Distributers ; 2004. 5. Woodbume. A. S. (1992): Human nature and Education; Cosmo Publications; New Delhi. 6. Association of Indian Universities – University News, vol. 51, No. 28, July 15 – 212013. 7. Association of Indian Universities – University News, vol. 50, No. 09, Feb 27 – March 04 – 2012. 8. Association of Indian Universities – University News, vol. 48, No. 28, July 12 – 18 2010. 9. Prof. K. Mohammed, Ariroor, (2012)- Vidhyabhyasethinte Islamika Dharsanam (Malayalam), Vicharam books, I P H tower, P.O. Road, Trissur. 680 001. About the Author:  Prof. K. Mohammed is the Principal of Ansar Training college for women, Perumpilavu, Kerala. He can be contacted at mohamed.ayrur@gmail.com