Value-education is a many-sided endeavor and in an activity during which young people are assisted by adults or older people in schools, family homes, clubs and religious and other organisations, to make explicit those underlying their own attitudes, to assess the effectiveness of these values for their own and others long term well-being and to reflect on and acquire other values which are more effective for long term well-being.
According to C. V. Good —” Value-education is the aggregate of all the process by means of which a person develops abilities, attitudes and other forms of behaviour of the positive values in the society in which he lives.”
The National Policy on Education of 1986 has very strongly recommended the need for value-education due to the following reasons:
- Tremendous advance in science and technology’ has resulted in a complete change in the lifestyle of the people.
- Science and technology is being used to produce weapons of mass destruction endangering the very existence of the human race instead of using it for the betterment of human life.
- Erosion of traditional values.
- Life in the future is going to be faster and more complex. The student of today have to face such moral situations in future, in which, instead of depending on others, they may be required to take their own decision.
- The present youth has special problems. It has started to question the conduct of elders — especially political leaders. They do not see the relevance of the values preached.
- 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. Such learning is rarely ever a product of rote. It is, more often than not, a result of learning to cooperate, think critically, and experiment with diverse situations.
- Education is not limited to a classroom or a school only. It is considered to be a lifelong process, where all the experiences, knowledge and wisdom that an individual acquires at different stages of one’s life through different channels are termed as education.
- The broader view considers education as an act or experience that has formative or additive effect on the personality of an individual. It is believed that education is not only an instrument of social change, but also an investment in national development.
- Such a view of education encompasses all life experiences, as there is a shift in emphasis from individual development to national development.
- The broader meaning of education implies the process of development, wherein the individual gradually adapts himself/herself to various ways to his/her physical, social and spiritual environments.
- Critical thinking, empathy and dialogue are key aspects of such a learning process. Our schools and teachers need to become adept at encouraging students to question the conventional and to discover the meaning of the personal and civic values that promote well-being. As in the case of academic subjects, questioning and understanding values and the learning that results are crucial for our children’s future. The future of our society, too, depends on it.
Value-education influences all aspects of a person’s growth and development. Thus, value- education consequently, is an integral part of education which cannot be separated from the educational process. Value-education has to be placed, therefore, at the centre of the educational endeavour.
