CANT VALUES BE IMPARTED IN CLASSROOMS?

Vijay Srinath Kanchi

Librarian & Asst. Professor (Philosophy),
Moolji Jaitha College, Jalgaon-425002

ABSTRACT
In the present fast changing world, thanks to the information and communication technologies,
communities across the world are able to interact with each other closely. Satellite television channels,
computers with interactive web 2.0 technologies and mobile telephony with apps like Whatsapp and
Skype have shrunk the world into a small village, resulting in cultural influences that transgress all
boundaries. While there are several good things that happen as a consequence of cultural influx from
other parts of the globe, there is also a danger to the prevalent cultures. This threat is more conspicuous
in case of ancient civilizations like India whose time tested value systems are world renowned. Under the
influence of consumerism and capitalism, the young generation seems to be bent upon being more and
more hedonistic and egocentric, forcing many to wonder whether we are witnessing a wave of moral
degradation and erosion of value systems.
To preserve the cultural heritage and inculcate cherished
values among the young generations and simultaneously keep pace with the changing currents, many
academicians and intelligentsia along with many educational commissions have underscored the need to
include value education as part of the classroom teaching across the schools and colleges, raising the
debate whether values can be imparted in the classrooms. A section of academicians strongly argue that
values are intrinsic to ones personality and it is only the life experiences that shape up the value system
of an individual and classrooms cannot be the right platform for value inculcation. This paper examines
both the views for and against value imbibing in classroom setting and suggests ways and means for
value inculcation in classrooms.
KEYWORDS
Value system, duties, responsibilities, obligations, morals, ethics, value education.

1. INTRODUCTION
While it could prove tricky to precisely define
what values are,
axiologically and
deontologically one could say all those things
and actions which are intrinsically good are
valuable (p207, Lillie). But again the question
arises as to what is a good action? Moralists
argue that from a ethical point of view, all
actions that are resultant of good conduct can
be called good1. Thus values have a direct
bearing on the conduct of an individual and it
is the conduct of an individual that is of great
concern to us all as social beings. A society
with a good value system ensures welfare of it
constituent individuals and individual welfare
in turn results in societal wellbeing. Hence the
chief object of value education is to bring

about such behavioral change in the students

that behooves good conduct which in turn
results in societal well being and also gives a
sense of meaningfulness to their lives.

In the present fast changing world, thanks

to the information and communication
technologies, communities across the
world are able to interact with each other
closely.
Satellite television channels,
computers with interactive web 2.0
technologies and mobile telephony with
apps like Whatsapp and Skype have shrunk
the world into a small village, resulting in
cultural influences that transgress all

boundaries. While there are several good

things that happen as a consequence of
cultural influx from other parts of the
globe, there is also a danger to the
prevalent cultures. This threat is more
conspicuous in case of ancient civilizations
like India whose time tested value systems
are world renowned. Under the influence
of consumerism and capitalism, the young
generation seems to be bent upon being
more and more hedonistic and egocentric,
forcing many to wonder whether we are
witnessing a wave of moral degradation
and erosion of value systems.
But how does one begin to acquire values?
Family in which one is born and the
upbringing one receives at home shape up the
values one appreciates in ones life. However
not every family setup is conducive enough to
impart cherished human values to its members,
thereby necessitating inputs from other
sources. A school or a college is a social
institution meant for this purpose whose
primary objective is to imbue values among
the pupils and knowledge imparting is, indeed,
only of secondary concern. In good old times
when the world was not as inundated with
information as on today, educational centers
such as gurukuls had the prime duty of value
imbuing among their learners and all
knowledge is viewed upon as a tool for
imparting lasting values. However, thanks to
radical reorientation of educational system by
Macaulay during the British era, and the
subsequent changing currents that resulted
from information explosion of last two
centuries, the schools and colleges lost their
footing in values and began to serve only as
information providing machineries, losing the
all important thread that information and
knowledge shall have to be subservient to
value inculcation. As more and more schools
began to be established by the government
with the sole aim of making the populace
literate, the object of education slowly began to
shift from value imbibing to information
gathering.
Soon after India gained

independence,
the
already
concerned
educationists raised their voice to incorporate
value education at least as part of the course
content, leave alone designing academic
courses around values.
2. AN OVERVIEW
EDUCATION

OF

VALUE

Value education is a system consisting of preidentified values that are incorporated in a

carefully designed courseware with well
defined objectives which are administered to a
target group of students in a classroom
environment under the supervision of a
competent facilitator.

To preserve the cultural heritage and

inculcate cherished values among the
young generations and simultaneously
keep pace with the changing currents,
many academicians
and intelligentsia
along with many educational commissions
have underscored the need to include value
education as part of the classroom teaching
across the schools and colleges, raising the
debate whether values can be imparted in
the classrooms.
Several education commissions set up by the
government of India after independence to
suggest reforms in the education, have
aggressively underscored the need for
mechanisms that build the personality of the
student as a whole through value inculcation.
The National Commission of Secondary
Education (1952-53) while emphasizing
character building as the defining goal of
education, stated , The supreme end of the
educative process should be the training of the
character and personality of students in such a
way that they will be able to realize their full
potentialities and contribute to the well-being
of the community. The University Education
Commission (1962) maintained that If we
exclude spiritual training in our institutions, we
would be untrue to our whole historical

development. The Education Commission of

1964-66, also agreeing with the Sri Prakasa
Committee Report, recommended direct
moral instruction for which one or two
periods a week should be set aside in the
school time-table. It identified the absence of
provision for education in social, moral and
spiritual values as a serious defect in the
curriculum. The Commission recommended
that these values be taughtwith the
help,wherever possible, of the ethical teachings
of great religions. The National Policy on
Education (1986) Expressed concern over the
erosion of essential values and an increasing
cynicism in society advocated turning
education into a forceful tool for the
cultivation of social and moral values.
"Education should foster universal and eternal
values, oriented towards the unity and
integration of our people it pointed out. The
Government of Indias report on Value Based
Education by the Chavan Committee submitted
in both houses of Parliament, provided impetus
to resume work on value orientation of
education.
The
National
Curriculum
Framework, 2005 Echoed the vision of
education where values are inherent in every
aspect of schooling.
The above summation is an ample evidence to
show that educational commissions believed
value inculcation as a panacea to fight the evils
of the world.
3. CHALLENGES AND DIFFICULTIES IN
VALUE EDUCATION
While value education can certainly be viewed
as a good solution for at least bringing learners
abreast with values, there are several
challenges and difficulties in executing value
education program in educational institutions
some of which are briefly discussed here.
3. 1 Axiological Difficulties:
The foremost challenge is erecting a yard stick
that is universally acceptable as basic and
necessary human value in all situations and
contexts. Within the value sets, some values

may directly conflict with other accepted

values under certain circumstances causing
bafflement and frustration about the right
choice.
Hence mere impartation of knowledge of
values does not suffice; rather efforts are
needed to empower learners to transform
knowledge into wisdom. Only then the person
will be able to face, if not resolve, the value
conflict and not feel bogged down by such
baffling situations.
3.2 Result of The Teaching Cannot Be Seen
Immediately:
Another challenge is that the full appreciation
of a particular value by a learner might take
long periods of time. This might mistakenly
raise doubts about the efficacy of value
education in the minds of those who are
accustomed to a world of instant results. But
with certain degree of perseverance on part of
the trainer coupled with the effectiveness of the
trainer and the innate potential of the learner,
the results are bound to follow.
3.3 Difficulty in Testing and Grading:
Efficacy of a particular methodology of value
education being adopted by a trainer cannot be
easily gauged. Further, like the Stanford-Binet
scale and its corresponding test for measuring
the Intelligence Quotient of a person, no
testing and grading procedure is standardized
to assess value sensitivity of a person.
Embedded values of a personality are difficult
to judge through a test or a procedure.
3.4 Doubts About Whether Values Can Be
Imparted In a Classroom Situation:
A section of academicians strongly argue that
values are intrinsic to ones personality and it
is only the life experiences that shape up the
value system of an individual and classrooms
cannot be the right platform for value
inculcation. This argument presumes that
classrooms are inept at creating situations that
highlight the significance of values and the
need for adhering to them. Arguably so. As

long as the classrooms look upon values as

some other form of information that need to be
simply informed to the students, appreciation
of values can never happen. Unless the
classrooms recreate such situations that bring
into focus the significance of values through
role plays, case studies, jurisprudential models,
etc., students do not see a reason to accept
values taught in the classroom as
indispensable. On the other hand, even if it is
argued that not all classrooms are capable
enough to create ideal platforms for value
dissemination, owing to many inadequacies
that our schools are fraught with, what is to be
kept in mind is the fact that even if the
classrooms fail to create ideal platforms, they
certainly can act as a source of knowledge
about, and the arguments in favor of values.
There is no denying the fact that one needs to
first know about a thing before one adopts it.
There are scores of young students who do not
receive right inputs on important values like
empathy, compassion etc., in their family
environment and it could only be in a
classroom, under the guise of an anecdote, or
an inspiring story that such students may for
the first time come across these values and
begin contemplate on them. Thus, even if
classrooms might fall short of the right milieu
needed for recreating complex life situations,
their role as knowledge providers on various
values and their significance cannot be
underrated.
But how are human values to be inculcated
among the young impressionable minds? The
solution lies in carefully considered and well
designed value education. Value education is
not just moral or ethical education teaching the
dos and donts for a decent social living; on the
contrary value education is bringing out the
natural innate values that are inherent in every
human personality out as part of the process of
human personality unfoldment. As the human
personality blossoms, the intrinsic values
automatically get exhibited. But for the human
personality to blossom the educational system
shall have to provide effective milieu to the
students. This is certainly possible if we
consider the following things:

a)

Only effective teachers are to be

given the responsibility of conducting
the value education to the students.
Heads of academic institutions must
realize that value imparting is a
specialized training not every trainer
is competent to handle. It is a special
field requiring professional handling
by an effective teacher.
b) Teaching
models
such
as
Jurisprudential model are to be
incorporated in value education.
When students are asked to take a
stance on an issue connoting ethical
or value undertones, they begin to
appreciate the underlying value and
learn to adopt it into their lives.
c) Case studies, real life situations can
prove effective in conveying the
significance of values to the students.
Use of ICT technology and inspirational and
motivational videos that compel the audience
to think and contemplate can prove effective in
value inculcation.

2. CONCLUSION
In the present world of information
overflow, influence of consumerism and
capitalism is felt heavily on the age old Indian
value system making the young generation
more and more hedonistic and egocentric.
Adding fuel to the fire, in the present education
system, where education is equated with
information gathering and knowledge transfer,
inculcation of values is taking a back seat
raising concern for concerted efforts toward
value inculcation among youth by one and all.
While some argue whether values can be
imparted in a classroom environment, there is
ample reasons to argue in favor of value
education to be made part of the courseware in
all streams and in every level of education. A
diligent execution of carefully designed value
education program with the help of classroom
enactments, case studies, together with ample
use of ICT and educational models such as
Jurisprudential model would certainly help
students appreciate the significance of values

in ones life for his own self advancement as

well as the wellbeing of the society in which
he is a constituent element.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The author would like to express his wholehearted
gratitude to Dr. Sunil Salunke, Associate Professor
(Philosophy), Dayanand College, Latur for his
continuous encouragement and support.

REFERENCES
1.Lillie, Williaml, 1961. An Introdction to Ethics .
University Paperbacks Metheun , London