Value-Based Education
Try not to become a person of Success, Rather try to become a person of Value
-Albert Einstein
Long back I wrote an article on Financial Literacy and in that I mentioned something called Value-based education. A good friend of mine recently called and wanted to know more about what was value-based education. I tried explaining him on the phone and he requested me to write on it. Hence, this article!
What is Value-based education?
If you google the same question you will get a reply like this —
“Values-based Education is an approach to teaching that works with values. It creates a strong learning environment that enhances academic achievement and develops students’ social and relationship skills that last throughout their lives.”
Confusing, isn’t it? Okay, let’s go one step at a time in understanding this and to do this we shall break it up into two parts — Values and Education.
What are values? Value is something that one considers with respect to worth, usefulness, excellence or importance. Or in simple words, something that holds importance in your life or society. So, what can hold importance in society? Truth, Honesty, Courage, Conviction, Helpfulness, Sacrifice for the right, Justice, Respect and so on and on. These are the values that our parents have tried teaching us in our day to day lives as we grew up.
Education simply means a process of acquiring knowledge and wisdom.
Now, Value-based education would mean something to you from what you just read and I don’t have to define it for you. If these were taught to us in a day to day manner previously, why is it that this needs to be imbibed in an education system? To understand this we need to go back in time — maybe a few centuries.
In ancient India, there existed an education system called Gurukuls or Gurukulam. A Gurukul was an education system in which the Students or the Shishyas used to live with the Gurus in one place. During those times Gurus were considered enlightened beings with a tremendous amount of knowledge and wisdom. They were actually like that and this was not just a consideration by the people. During the course of their stay at the Gurukul, the Shishyas were taught a life that was based on how an individual is supposed to live and how he/ she can be beneficial to society as a whole.
In making them beneficial or useful beings to this planet and the society, classes that taught subjects like science, art, culture etc existed. In making them enlightened beings or a person with good values they were taught the way of life by living it and not just in the classrooms.
It was astounding for me to know that the ancient Indian education institutes such as Nalanda, Takshashila, Vallabhi etc which followed the older system of education actually produced a lot of scholars. Some well-known scholars and their fields of expertise are —
- Susruta — Medical science and surgery
- Aryabhatta — Mathematics
- Bhaskaracharya — Mathematics
- Varahamihira — Astrology
- Chanakya — Politics/ Philosophy
- Thiruvalluvar — Tamizh poet/ Philosopher
I am sure these are names that you would have heard at least once in your life. Many such scholars were brought up in an education system that was Value-based and hence produced some fine human beings who contributed to society and the world.
Okay, now that we have understood what value-based education is, an important question to ask ourselves is — Why value-based education now?
As generations passed, the good values that were taught to us by our ancestors were passed on by a word of mouth and in the name of good culture. However, with time these words of mouth started diminishing and eventually led to the diminishing of good values as well. This has now created a society that is nothing but chaos. Chaos because every one of us is busy in our own lives. Societal growth, prosperity and diplomacy are values that do not exist in today’s world. People have lost their values leading to a disaster that we call our environment.
As we lost our values and our social responsibility we started destroying our own planet and eventually ourselves. Now we are at a juncture where our children need to know what values mean and their importance to their lives and the world more than their marks in the examinations. Good values create good human beings and eventually will nurture positive thinking. Positive thinking will kindle creativity and creativity leads to development and enlightenment. That takes us to Global Prosperity.
It is really heartwarming to see that these are part of the National Education Policy that was brought out by the Government in 2020. Though some part of it is not being widely accepted by a certain group of people, mostly due to reasons that are political, I take it as the Turbulent phase. Change is always turbulent and once the change phase is endured, the turbulence does not exist and things become smoother again. And I firmly believe that Change is the only Constant and it needs to happen — for the better.
Towards rebuilding a society that lives together in harmony and peace and strives ahead to give a better environment to the future generations a new approach to educating our children is deemed not just necessary but inescapable. Therefore, we are now going back to our roots. No, we are not creating Gurukuls because people nowadays see Gurukuls as a religious place than a place for enlightenment and wisdom.
Instead, we are trying to integrate modern-day education with value-based education. I sincerely believe that this is the best way forward if we wish to see the world striving to be a better place to live. If this happens, probably Elon Musk’s missions to Mars to colonise won’t be necessary. (Just kidding)
Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.
-Nelson Mandela
With that quote, I leave the rest to your thoughts. Hope I have given you a minor glimpse of what Value-based education means with respect to the Indian Society.
