Education and Values

The school in a child’s life is a first step where he/she gets to learn about values. The student often receives massive doses of “moral science” and informal advice on “how to be good” from teachers and parents.

Recently, a study named, Quality Education study (QES) was conducted by Educational Initiatives and Wipro Applying Thought in top schools where it was found that the value education in India in not quite effective. In the study it was found that many students have bias and ignorant opinions over issues that are crucial to social and personal life. For instance, 43% students of class IV, VI and VIII feel that education for girls is not that important as it is for boys. About half of the students on whom the study was conducted believe that religious differences matter and should be violently defended.

Now, the question is that why is it that schools are unable to nurture the moral values in these little kids? Is it because our top schools emphasize just on academics, examinations and marks and not on values and attitudes of students? According to the report of the study, students in “top schools” depend more on rote learning and less on understanding. It appears that they study too much and learn little.

This failure is due to the fundamental weakness of our ideas about learning and how to bring it about. True learning happens when the student builds, often gradually, coherent conceptual schemes about how the world works and is able to use these concepts to understand, explain and act in unfamiliar situations. Our schools, particularly the elite ones are yet to go a long way in order to bring about this transition.

Now, the question arises that why are values so important? What has education to do with it? Values are important as one’s values affect the overall personality of a person and education is certainly the best way to impart right values among kids at the right age which is the school going age. For instance, gender and religious bias is very likely to influence a student’s thoughts and actions. It is clear, therefore, that values, if they have to add to personal and social well-being must help students think and judge sensitively and help them understand and respond to novel challenges.

In the conclusion, learning about values is not a matter of teaching the good ones. It is about helping students explore and understand the consequences of holding particular values. Discovering the consequences of bias and prejudice must be part of our curriculum. The Constitution urges us to respect others’ rights, and to participate peacefully in the democratic process. These civic values need to be discovered and nurtured.