EDUCATION : DEMAND OF THE HOUR

We are living in an increasingly globalising environment. It is believed that Asia will be

the focus of development in the new millennium and India will be one of the lead players
in this process. From all accounts it appears to be the truth. As the clich goes, India is
not a poor country but a rich country with lots of poor people. There is unconstrained and
limitless luxury and grandeur on the one hand and sheer poverty on the other. This great
country has the potential to reach even greater heights and become a land of splendid
opportunities if only the human resource potential is meticulously developed and
exploited. Also a regimented work culture needs to be developed.

Although the new Information Age has made the world a very small place, it has its own
perils. Anything and everything is available at the click of a button. Getting information
had never been so easy. Today, the society in general and the youth in particular are
passing through a very critical phase where they have been ruthlessly exposed to the ever
expanding demon of electronic media, feeding on and serving ghastly and horrific
happenings to a normless youth. This signifies grave danger for the future. This is where
values become important in education and personality development. If education can help
overcome these handicaps, we can certainly look forward to the day when our country
will again be called the golden sparrow.

Education should condition the mind to enable individuals to function effectively and to
have a fulfilling life. Let us analyze the existing state of affairs. We have a situation
where the age-old joint family system is deteriorating. Children spend less and less time
with parents who are busy earning to keep the domestic wheel moving. These children
are assailed with quick-fix solutions for every problem through an aggressive media
culture. Thus we need value education to promote ethical choices to the educated persons
who are expected to be thinking individuals.

Again values become important for the educated person in the context of emerging forces
of globalization converting everything to the naked fury of the market forces. Just look at
the way organized crime, financial frauds and terrorist violence is being perpetrated by
some of the best minds gifted with the best of educational and technical
accomplishments.

Similarly, the value of equality and equity must influence the thought and action of all
educated people. For too long, inequalities have divided Indian society and contributed to
untold human suffering. It is unfortunate that the Supreme Court has to lay down
directives of gender equality when it should come naturally to a people with such a rich
heritage in which the female is given the pride of place.

The major problem in India is corruption and reluctance to work hard. In a recently
concluded survey by the World Bank, the Corruption Index of the worlds countries was
calculated and India stood a miserable 91 in the list. Unless the educated work force of
the nation is not inculcated with values like national pride, integration, loyalty and
respect for the Constitution, we may find it tough to scale the ladder.

The need for value education is central to all forms of education; from the primary to
higher education but there are differences of opinion among educational administrators
on how to organize it in the curriculum. The Central Policy on Education, 1984, explicitly
states the need for value education and it even directed the Central Board for Secondary
Education to frame a syllabus for value education which would then become part of
textbooks of all school boards in the country. Even after more than twenty years, we have
failed to see the efforts of the Policy bear any fruit. This is a sad condition for a
multicultural, multi religious and multiethnic society like ours. We may interpret
secularism to suit our point of view but one thing is for sure; there is no alternative to
multi culturism if India is to survive as a nation. This would mean that tolerance, as a
value, must be imbibed in the personality of every individual whether he or she belongs
to a majority or minority group. India has a prosperous legacy of tolerance and she has
absorbed various cultures of people who either came as plunderers, invaders or as guests.

Education seems to have got totally divorced from ethical standards and even laws are
unable to deter people from evil conduct. There is a crying need for value education in
todays people and this has to start from the very beginning. Children, whose minds are
like wet cement, must be impressed upon with moral values like personal hygiene,
general cleanliness, community living, gender equality, sexual morality and social values
like national integration, respect for elders, familial and societal responsibilities, respect
for an individuals rights, the law and the Constitution.

Value education in the agenda of higher education should essentially extend to moral and
ethical practices in individual and collective behavior. If corruption, deceit and violence
prevail in public life today, the educational system in the country will have to own a share
of responsibility for the malaise.

If civil society has to grow and exercise a redeeming influence in social and national
development, the educational system of the country has to take the lead and mobilize
social action particularly among the youth through value education.