Challenges in Introducing Value Education at Higher Education in India

Value Education is the much debated and discussed subject in the plethora of education in India. Of course it is true that the main purpose of any education will go with Value orientation. More concentration on Value education has been given at the primary and secondary level of school education than in higher education in India. Values could be effectively imparted to the young minds rather than to the matured ones. It may be the important reason for this prime importance given at the school level. There are so many modules designed with the help of agencies like NCERT and others for effectively imparting the value education to the school students. In this context, many innovative educational practices are being identified by the experts. Good number of experiments and studies are being conducted in the recent days on the effectiveness of teaching value education at school level. Some schools have very innovative and radical course designs to impart the values.

Effective teaching practices in imparting value education ranges from story telling, exhibitions, skits, one act play and group discussions to various other formats. New methods have been evolved by educationists to create an effective learning sphere. The usage of electronic gadgets also gains importance in the teaching-learning practices of value education. But at the higher education level, due to various reasons, the importance given to value education is not as much as it is given at the school level. The curriculum and the teaching methods also could be subjected to scrutiny. It is true that colleges are meant for a kind of specialization in some field of education. But in the Indian social context, the youth require direction and counseling at this stage. They have been exposed to various challenges at this stage which demands the intervention of educationists for his/her betterment. His/her character building also strengthens at this juncture. Students' perception on various life factors and events are getting shaped at this stage. On the whole they evolve their own philosophy of life. Their sensitivity and knowledge are getting direction at this stage. Hence, an effective value orientation becomes inevitable to the students of colleges. Keeping this requirement in mind, States like Tamilnadu introduced a compulsory paper/course on value education to undergraduate students of all colleges in the State under the choice based credit system. Though this kind of effort is made with the good intention of imparting values to the youth, many limitations in bringing out the expected outcome could be identified.

The problem mainly begins with the definition of values. Defining the term 'value' poses a challenge to all scholars. The term value is loaded with varieties of meaning. Each meaning reflects its own philosophical position. Generally the term value is spontaneously associated with religious values. It is believed by many Indians that values are nothing but the religious and spiritual guiding principles of life. Hence, it is supposed that the path is already been laid for the life journey. But in the context of modernity and modernism there rises a fundamental question of whether value education is required at all in a modern state. There are those who argue that modern life is based on science and technology, and both are value neutral. They view that the values are bugbear held out by people living in the past, glued to outdated religious principles that have no relevance to the 21st century. At this point, there is also another group of modernist who propagate the necessity of value education at learning centres in order to safe guard the democratic state and its values. The values they wish to cultivate are modern secular values such as honesty, respect to other, equality, collectivity, democracy, respecting the human rights, sharing equal space in the public sphere and so on. These values are considered as the products of enlightenment period. Hence, four positions could be arrived at on the basis of the above understanding. The are:
1. There are religious values which are very much essential for every one and must be included in the curriculum.
2. The religious values should not find place in the educational system. They may operate at the private sphere.
3. There are non-religious secular values and they must find space in the education.
4. There is no need for teaching value education in the academics because they cannot be cultivated through formal learning and such value cultivation will make the individual biased.

In consequence to these positions, following questions arouse.
1. Whether value education should find place in the educational system?
2. If it is required, then what sort of values should be given preference in the curriculum?
3. What is the importance to be given to the religious values which are primarily developed on the basis of scriptures?
4. Can modern values alone are sufficient enough or is there any possibility of blending the values of modernity with religious values?
5. If religious values are to be given importance in the curriculum, which religion will find prime place? If there are contradictory propagation on a single virtue by two religions, then how are they to be handled?
6. Similarly religions differ on the practices also. Right from eating patterns, dress mode, marriage systems, war tactics, killing, punishments to various other aspects, religions differ on their outlook. In this situation, what sort of perceptions need to be taught?

Besides these questions, another billion dollar question would be raised on the methodology of effectively imparting those values. Then again as it is mentioned earlier, the school education can very well include this education easily because the system itself is advantageous for it to accommodate. But at the college level, the system finds it very difficult to work out. So this study could analyse the theoretical problems relating to the identification of values to be included in the curriculum at the one side and the problem of effective designing of the curriculum and imparting those values on the other side.

II

The necessity for imparting values to the students of all levels has been felt by everyone. The world today is facing unprecedented socio-political and economic challenges. Problems of life are becoming increasingly intense and complex. Traditional values are decentered. 'An environment of strife pervades all countries and broken homes have become common. An insatiable hunger for money and power, leads most of people to tension and absence of peace of mind and all kinds of physical and mental ailments have become common place" 1. In the present day context of frequent and often violent social upheavals, we have to look at the problem of restlessness of the youth, their frustration born out of futility of their search for meaning of life and the purpose for which they are living, often leading to evil and wickedness. This calls for a new approach to, and a new vision of education. It is obviously felt that the present educational system promotes rat race and keep the student community in a sense of insecurity. Educational institutions have become the pressure cookers building pressures in the minds of youth. Also a loft sided educational pattern which insists on instrumental and technical rationality for the successful life in terms of gaining money and power has invaded the educational system of India. The person who is deemed to be unfit for this survival race becomes disqualified and ineligible to live in this market economy based life. The spate of industrialization and economic growth in developed nations has brought about a perceptible change in this scenario. And developing countries including India are feeling the ripple effects of this development. Values earlier considered essential by all societies have been eroded and have given way to unethical practices around the globe. Where honesty and integrity were loved and appreciated, greed, corruption and red tapism have come in, bringing in their wake, unethical responses which have pervaded all walks of life and are thwarting efforts of a few enlightened individuals to promote value based society.2 Hence, implementation of well structured education is the only solution available with all states. With growing divisive forces, narrow parochialism, separatist tendencies on the one hand and considerable fall in moral, social, ethical and national values both in personal and public life on the other, the need for promoting effective programmes of value orientation in education has assumed great urgency. Development of human values through education is now routinely seen as a task of national importance. Value education though supposes to be the part and parcel of the regular education, due to the market influences, it could not be so. Hence, it has become an inevitable need to include an exclusive curriculum for value education at all levels.

Now the next question would be about the nature of value education. What sort of values should be given preference in the curriculum is the prime problem in the introduction of value education. This problem surfaces because we can find varieties of values prescribed on the basis of various scriptures and theories. Sometimes they are contradictory to each other. This issue has been thoroughly discussed earlier. But the solution to the problem of the nature of value education is primarily dependent on the social conditions that prevail in the state. There need not be an imported value educational pattern to be prescribed in India. The burning social issues would demand the required value education. Though India is considered to be the land of divinity and wisdom, the modern value system throws challenges to the ancient value pattern. Right from the Gurkula pattern to the varna ashrama values, all values are under scrutiny by modern rationality. Hence, the relevance of the golden values prescribed by the then society is questionable in the present situation. On the other hand, the so called modern values which have been listed earlier also subjected to criticism by philosophers like post modernists. They question the very nature of the rationality of the enlightenment period. Because critics of modernity strongly declare that the modern rationality is the reason for the deterioration of human concern in the world and they paved the way for inhuman killing and escalation of values. The reason of the modernism is considered as the root of power politics which leads to inhuman behaviour of the power system, according to them. Hence the modern values like democracy, civil rights, environmental ethics, professional ethics, discipline and all such values are found useless in bringing harmony in the society. The values like discipline, tolerance, peace bears the negative connotation in this context. Hence, what sort of modern values are to be included in the curriculum is a challenge thrown towards the educationists. At one side the fanatic and fundamentalist features of religious values and on the other side the modern values based on the market economy and other factors are to be excluded and a well balanced curriculum with genuine worthy values suitable to the society has to be identified and included in the educational system. In this context, it becomes obvious that there cannot be any universal pattern of values to be prescribed in the system. When a suitable blend of religious and modern values is to be done, the designing of such course demands an unbiased, scrupulous, intelligent approach on the part of the academician who designs such course. Thus the spiritual values of sensitizing the youth for happy world and rational values for a just world are very much required. Religious values can be taken but not with the label of any particular religion, democratic values are to be included but not with its dogmatic inhuman approach. Thus there need a perfect blend of both. This is the real challenge thrown to the Indian academicians.

After the identification of these values, they need to be inculcated not to be informed to the students. Mostly listing the values is done very easily, but imparting them effectively requires genuine spirit and innovative educational practices. In the Vedic period, the gurukula system prevailed in which the student has to thoroughly undergo a pattern life with the guru shishya hierarchy. Whatever the guru declares are the values of life. But in the modern context, which is supposed to be the democratic sphere, a sense of equality and freedom has to prevail the learning situation. Also the values identified cannot be preached on the basis of the religious faiths. So the teacher has to find effective working module to internalize the values in the minds of the youth. The teachers' understanding about the values prescribed and his/her commitment in imparting them also play a crucial role here. How to sensitize the teacher before carrying the values to the students is also a challenge to the educationists. The value education class room, if it is dealt with full seriousness and sincerity would be very interesting and challenging sphere for students and teachers. At times they need to sail at the same level with the students. The hierarchy may get disappeared. Value education demands a total responsibility from the teachers. They become more accountable. On the other side, a teacher who is committed to a set of values would always like to preach and impose them on the young minds. That extreme should also to be avoided with a balance of mind. Value education cannot be done by just delivering lectures and screening films. It requires a strong interaction between the students and the society. A lot could be experimented at this sphere. For which the supreme value 'integrity' is expected from the educator.

It is observed that many modules of teaching values have been designed and tested. Some are seemed to be very effective. In Tamilnadu, especially in aided colleges, with all good intention the government has introduced the value education as a compulsory scheme at the undergraduate level. But each university has its own syllabus for the same. The scrutiny of those syllabi also reveals a lot of variations in conceiving the value education. In some universities, some religion based institutions are given the responsibility of designing and even carrying out the course. Similarly the teachers who have not been exposed to any such type of training in value education are given the responsibility of teaching values. The introduction of value education for all under graduate courses is done at the cost of a core paper of that course. The teachers who have been handling their hardcore subject papers had to meet the shortage of workload due to this programme and to solve this problem, they have been entrusted with the job of teaching value education paper. This is done with the aim of avoiding the workload problem of existing teachers. The most valuable and sensitive part of education has been made like a mechanical dogmatic part. At this juncture, the fate of value education at the college level could be imagined. How to solve this issue is again a challenge to the educationists of Tamilnadu. The same fate could be observed in many other states of India. Hence, two important problems surfaces here, one at the syllabus level and the other at the teaching level. As it is discussed earlier the syllabus could be designed by way of paying attention to all aspects but imparting the same requires not only innovative teaching methods, but also innovative training method of the educators. It is as good as training the driver to drive the car; the teacher needs to be trained in imparting the values. The technical education employs teachers with sound knowledge in the subject, similarly it is essential to have teachers with sound mind and creative teaching skill to teach value education. Value education is definitely not to be dealt with compartmentalization but it should be taken as a part of the whole educational system. As Nietzsche puts it, the society requires masters to create and impart values, not the slaves who accept all the values imposed on them without any critical understanding.

If education fails to impart necessary values to its citizens, it will definitely have a telling effect on the society. All efforts to bring just and peace in the world will become futile if proper value education is not imparted.
Notes:
1. Kireet Joshi, Philosophy of Value Oriented Education Theory and Practice, ICPR

Publications, New Delhi,p.217.
2. Ibid., p.218.

Homeschooling Curriculum: The Compassionate Circle

Ask questions from your heart and you will be answered by the heart.

Omaha Proverb

Homeschooling Curriculum: The Questioning Heart

Like me I am sure there have been times when you have held back from asking the question you know you should ask because the answer would not be the one you would want to hear.They are the answers that come from deep within us, the answers we know we ignore at our peril - the answers from the heart.

Within education systems worldwide the question being asked by more and more disaffected teachers is:

"Am I (the system) failing the children in my care?"

Homeschooling Curriculum:Circles Of Compassion

For those committed to homeschooling and the homeschooling curriculum I imagine the temptation is to nod smugly, draw your cloak about yourselves and walk the other way. Please resist the temptation, rather, consider the words of Einstein:

"A human being is a part of a whole, called by us the Universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."

If a genuine desire for change exists within our schools then the homeschooling community and the homeschooling curriculum has an opportunity to influence that change. It may at present appear a remote possibility but a possibility it remains, and not as remote as many may think.

Homeschooling Curriculum:Can Schools Be Unschooled?

The Family Unschoolers Network defines the purpose of unschooling and, by association, the homeschooling curriculum, itself as being:

"... to keep alive the spark of curiosity and the natural love of learning with which all children are born."

Isn't it tragic that many children who start school as naturally enthusiastic learners curious about the world around them eventually become 'turned off and disenchanted.

'The Family Unschooling Network's' approach to the homeschooling curriculum is holistic and all-embracing. Learning does not start or end at the school gates. The universe is their classroom where learning is as natural a part of existence as breathing.

They touch upon an issue that will resonate with many teachers constrained by the imposed limits of State education where learning has to be bundled and packaged in neat little segments each with artificial time constraints of their own. Many yearn for the days when they were able to pursue a topic that had gripped the children's interest or imagination to its natural conclusion. Here, for me, lies the starkest contrast between the homeschooling curriculum and that of education systems worldwide.

That said, it does seem to leave schools firmly out of the equation, or does it?

Hands up if anyone has heard of Wales.

Homeschooling Curriculum:The Learning Country

Wales is the smallest and least known of the four countries that comprise the United Kingdom. You are more likely to have heard of Wales because of Catherine Zeta Jones, Sir Anthony Hopkins and Sir Tom Jones than for any other reason. But here, in this small principality, a bold educational experiment is taking place.

Jane Davidson, the previous Minister for Education, decided to steer a radical course. From 2008 children aged 3 to 5 were no longer compelled to follow a set curriculum instead the guiding principle is 'play based learning'. The initial response from the education community was positive, but once the euphoria had dissipated people began to ask, "What is the curriculum going to look like?"

The minister was clearly determined to implement and extend these changes to embrace all year groups. Enthusiasm is in danger of being replaced by panic.

The question being asked is, "Where can we find a model we can adopt?"

It would be tragic if this initiative failed through lack of knowledge. Perhaps this is one area where the influence of the homeschooling curriculum can be brought to bear.

"Until he extends his circle of compassion to include all living things, man will not himself find peace."

Albert Schweitzer

Homeschooling Curriculum:Completing The Circle - The Work Of Our Hearts

When our eyes see our hands doing the work of our hearts, the circle of Creation is completed inside us; the doors of our souls fly open, and love steps forth to heal everything in sight.

Michael Bridge

Homeschooling Curriculum:Lighting A Candle

If you have knowledge let others light their candles by it.

Margaret Fuller

The time will eventually arrive when the homeschooling community will not only gain universal acceptance but also command universal respect. Where else does such a rich and invaluable knowledge base regarding experiential-based learning exist? Regrettably for Welsh teachers faced with the challenge of a radical new approach to helping children learn the homeschooling community in the UK is but a pale shadow of its American counterpart. One mother expressed very eloquently what homeschooling had taught her:

"Unschooling has taught me nothing if not to utilize all available resources and to provide my children with the best available opportunities regardless of their form." (Life Learning Magazine)

Homeschooling Curriculum:Dead Dreams

If a little knowledge is a dangerous thing then the lack of it can prove fatal. Apparently over 90% of internet businesses fail due to lack of knowledge. That's a lot of dead dreams! How sad if the Welsh initiative failed for the same reason. The question is - if American schools also decided to adopt an experiential play-based learning model, would the homeschooling community be prepared to get alongside and help?

Before answering perhaps we need to step back and consider the bigger picture for there is a battle taking place.

Homeschooling Curriculum:The Secret War

On one side stand the forces committed to a centralized education system defined by standardized curricula and driven by a regime of testing and examination that assigns children their specific rank in life. Opposing them are those who believe the child should be central to the process of learning, not merely a passive commuter following pre-planned routes over which he has limited control and little choice.

Events in the UK suggest this analogy is not overly dramatic. Disregarding the resentment and outrage it will inevitably provoke, the government has just announced that all schools in England must teach reading using synergetic phonics. This stands in stark contrast to the Welsh model that encourages innovation and diversity. But the battle lines are rarely that clearly defined, and anyway why get drawn into somebody else's war?

Homeschooling Curriculum:Shades Of Achilles

At their hour of direst need the Greeks were denied the presence of their greatest warrior. Achilles remained in his tent and the consequence was the death of his beloved friend Patrocolus. If you believe children are suffering within a system that does not nurture and support the growth of the whole child don't you have a responsibility to try to influence or change that system for the better?

Not every child is ever going to be in the privileged position of being homeschooled and prisons worldwide are full of disaffected casualties and those impacts upon us all. Troy had stood for generations secure behind her mighty walls. The institutionalized bastions of state education probably feel as impregnable and untouchable as did the citizens of Troy. Well, Troy got it wrong.

Homeschooling Curriculum:The Heart of the Matter

If seeing is believing then doing is a personal affirmation of that belief. The most powerful means of affecting change is getting alongside someone. Let them observe the work of your hands and if you are committed and passionate they will recognize it as the overflow of your heart. If a strong homeschooling community existed in Wales many head teachers would be making contact and asking families to share the experience of the homeschooling curriculum with their teachers for the benefit of the children in their care. This is not the improbable scenario it initially appears. The irony is that the battle that is raging may soon become irrelevant.