Practicing value-based education

We are all witnessing gross consumerism and aggressive greed for materialism in society. In the Indian scenario, we are gradually moving from a joint family system to a nuclear family system. Also, there is a high degree of stress especially in the younger generation owing to the fast-paced modern-day lifestyle.

The inclination of present society towards western lifestyle and culture is not only limited to youth, almost everybody is running a blind race of cutthroat competition to accumulate more money and things of leisure and pleasure. In recent years, the increase in the percentage of crimes committed by youth, especially adolescents has created a big concern and probably the problem lies in the quality of education we are providing to our children.

Bowing to the compulsion of today's parents for more emphasis on materialistic education academic institutions also have pushed to the background the genesis of imparting national character in the students.

In the process, not only parents but teachers and schools are also responsible for misleading the direction of education. Actually, our schools and colleges go on revising curricula and syllabi every year only to provide jobs but not values to children. It is expected that parents play a vital role in the upbringing of children with values, ethics, morals, and honesty.

Parents are the role models for children and they get educated by observing their parents and imitating how they walk, talk, behave and respect others. This fact is totally ignored by the present generation and thus we are witnessing such a society without safety and a cheating culture.

Introduction of values are the guiding principles of life that contribute to the all-round development of an individual. They give a direction to life and thus bring joy, satisfaction, and peace. Actually, in the present era Education includes ultramodern gadgets such as technology where we are inclined more toward ranks in examinations rather than applying the learning in our day-to-day life.

There is no means of utilizing knowledge for the development of society, nation, and ourselves in the true sense. Parents and teachers want students to learn that type of education which can help them to get a better job and position in the employment market which will ultimately help them to accumulate a lot of money and things of leisure and pleasure.

The purpose of education has been completely overlooked by our policymakers and students have become machines to generate marks and teachers as machine operators. The basic and elementary purpose of education to enlighten the inner soul of an individual enabling him to understand life in a better way has lagged behind in the race of modernization. Values may vary from one society to another and from time to time but every society abides by certain moral values and these values are accepted by all societies as "Global Values".

The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 envisages the need to make education a dominant device for nurturing social and moral values in society.

Yet the academic institutions did not make any attempt to adopt the essence of the policy and instead tried to modify the syllabus and the evaluation pattern to appease the students and make a mockery of the policy.

Society is demoralised by the so-called modern education and it is time to realize the mistake and de-school society. Every parent is responsible for the failure of their ward in terms of ethics. Parents need to be educated first to become role models for their children as they learn by observation and imitation of the parents first and the people around them. Making policies is not a solution to make the nation strong with citizens of national character but to bring up children as good citizens.

(The author is the retired Scientific Officer, BARC, Mumbai)