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VALUE EDUCATION FOR COLLEGE STUDENTS

Ln.T.PUSHPANATHAN
Assistant Professor of English,
School of Education, SCSVMV University,
Enathur, Kanchipuram – 631561.
pushpanath.scsvmv@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
We are living in an age, in which vast technological changes have wrought widespread
transformations in social and cultural conditions. Human behavior becomes empty and education
becomes directionless without values. Today we are living in a world of paradox; on the one
hand, science and technology are advancing very fast while, on the other hand, most societies are
facing problems of alcohol and drug abuse, mental illness, stress, crime etc. Therefore value
should be introduced at the school level. This paper analyses the need of value education and
stresses the importance of inculcating values in the minds of the youth.
INTRODUCTION
The teaching community today faces an endless and challenging task of imparting value
education and value based education. The impact of inculcating values among students by the
teachers is in fact colossal and quite lasting against many destructive non-values such as egotism,
arrogance, domination, corruption and money-power in the society based on justice, equality and
common fellow-ship. As teachers have always claimed a special capacity to influence conduct
and to shape moral character, the society expects them to develop not only knowledge but also
ethical values among students thus creating an environment that would foster fraternity amongst
mankind.
Releasing this need our curriculum needs to insist on educating the young students in the
art of living with values. If learning remains detached from value judgments, scholarship runs the
risk of degenerating into indifference. Value judgments actually enhance the accuracy of
learning.
Teachers, therefore, should be aware of the important role they are called upon to play as
professional and citizens, as agents of development and change. They must make an effort to
light a candle instead of cursing the darkness and sow the seeds of value education with a fond
hope that they would diffuse their own fragrance towards the creation of a just and new society
as they sprout and blossom. Can we be good role models if we are not ethical ourselves?
WHAT IS VALUE?
‘Value’ comes from the Latin word ‘Valere’, which means to be worth, to be strong.
Values are those standards or codes of conduct, which are conditioned by one’s cultural tenets,
guided by conscience, according to which one is supposed to conduct himself and shape his life
pattern by integrating his beliefs, ideas and attitudes with a view to realize the cherished ideals
and aims or life. High values lead to objective, fair and correct decision and actions and ensure
the welfare of all concerned, while low values do exactly the opposite. Values are essential for
the development of the whole person, recognizing that the individual is comprised of physical,
intellectual, emotional and spiritual dimensions. The Kothari Commission emphasized the role of
Teacher and the school in imparting values.
VALUE EDUCATION
Education is essential for all round development of a child. Education has always been
linked with society. It has both a personal and social dimension, and like the two sides of same
coin, they are inseparable. According to Gandhi, real education does not consist in packing the
brain with information, facts and figures or in passing examinations by reading prescribed
number of books, but by developing right character. National Policy on Education (1986) says,
“In a culturally plural society, education should foster universal and eternal values oriented
towards the utility and the integration of people.” Such capital value education should help
eliminate religious fanaticism, violence, superstition and fatalism. Besides, Value Education has
a profound positive content based on our heritage, national goals and universal perception. Today
we are living in a world of paradox; on the one hand, science and technology are advancing very
fast while, on the other hand, most societies are facing problems of alcohol and drug abuse,
mental illness, stress, crime etc. Therefore value should be introduced at the school level. If we
want to develop values among our students we have to develop values among our teachers.
VALUE EDUCATION FOR THE COLLEGE STUDENTS
Though educators have made significant contributions by using different classroom
situations to inculcate values our students’ continue to face many problems. This is an age, when
the past is irrelevant, the present uncertain and the future confused and fearful. Traditional
values have never been so radically rejected and rules so violently violated as they are today.
The young find a gap between the teachers, professed and lived values. They search for answers
to the three basic questions: who am I? Why am I here? Where am I going? In other words they
search for their identity, for a purpose in life and for a meaningful human destiny, individually
and historically. However, this search is difficult as their vision is blurred, due to the various
pressures from without and within themselves and hence the disequilibrium.
It is the teacher who caters to this need of theirs by giving them a sense of inner-
directedness through a clarification of their personal values. They carve for the warmth of
friendship and the capacity to relate meaningfully. They need opportunities for relaxed,
unthreatened and non-competitive relationships. While they yearn for friendship, they need a
model to follow. Teachers are their best models. The role of a teacher in shaping the character of
students is of paramount importance because various forms of counseling form the parents is
becoming increasingly uncommon. In most households parents return late from work and when
the students find their houses empty, they turn to other channels for pleasure until their parents
return home. These channels can be disastrous to the young minds as they not only intensify
their loneliness but also make them spend money unwisely.
RULES OF VALUES
Rules of values, both at home and college are not internalized by the young. Teachers
who are liked have fewer rules and teachers who are not liked have more rules. Imparting
specific rules usually yield negative results as the students perceive a basic inequity between the
rule violation and its consequences. Large numbers of least-liked teachers use ridicule,
humiliation, insults and threats. Those who took the erring students aside and spoke with firm
words were respected and followed implicitly than those who always yelled and made fun of the
students.
STATE OF THE YOUTH
The young have a frail sense of self-confidence and this need to be strengthened and
nurtured. Confidence in them and in others is an important aid in fostering unity among them.
Value oriented education helps them discover themselves and enables them realize their worth as
persons as it is closely associated with our cultural heritage, national objectives and universal
vision. It also leads to the acceptance of self and others.
THE PRESENT SCENARIO
The colleges and universities are expected to produce graduates with unflinching
integrity, a stiff spine, a kind but firm heart, a heavy measure of devotion, competence and
confidence. In short, gentlemen of character but instead the present day youth is surrounded by
jeans and jazz, rum and rock, drugs and daggers. The students encounter the vast and confusing
market place of ideas, theories and life styles that they meet in and outside the classroom. The
young voice ideas and pursue goals that they feel will please their parents, but which they have
not truly chosen for themselves. Value clarification is a helpful tool in giving them singleness of
purpose and the ability to discard what is inappropriate and destructive to them. They need to
constantly exercise judgment and make decisions and to develop the capacity to live with doubts
and yet be able to function which is another facet of collegiate experience. Therefore, moral
development depends not on what subject is taught but on how it is communicated.
IMPORTANCE OF MORAL EDUCATION
However moral education is not to be taught and learned directly as they are not applied
and therefore, remain splintered and isolated. Advocates of academic ethics feel that classroom
methods or special courses in values may fail to replace the murky system now in vogue and
suggest, instead, a sound education based on sound scholarship which itself is a form of moral
education. As students discover the moral requisites for the academic endeavor, they learn this
along with their subject. The practice and discipline of good scholarship itself contributes to
their moral development. The student is required to listen honestly and tolerantly, entertain
alternative points of view, engage him in self-judgment and self-criticism and abandon results
that gratify the ego. As students, values are affected deeply through relationships with teachers;
the latter should embody the values of objectivity, tolerance, openness to criticism and
intellectual curiosity. Teachers should serve as models whose qualities inspire emulation.
Today, being is subordinate to having. Widespread affluence in our country, which
coexists with harsh poverty, aggravates the situation and the impact has been felt on the young
who want to succeed at any cost. They hanker after power, self and glory sacrificing the higher
values of life. In the face of failure or when success seems remote they develop suicidal
tendencies. Moral education alone can create a community where moral and intellectual values
such as honesty, tolerance, respect, truth, rig our and fairness flourish.
MEASURES TO BE TAKEN
Moral values tend to take precedence over other values and so the teachers should design
a course on this and include it in the curriculum. They cannot be instilled merely by moral
instructions and so they should be transmitted through practice rather than precepts, through
example in action rather than mere instructions. Values provide the necessary standards through
which the individual ego can escape from complete preoccupation with itself, from its own
essentially isolated and arbitrary moods, feelings, impulses and desires. Through a common
allegiance to these values I and You can become we, isolation can be overcome, private factors
of individuality can be shaped and fashioned and human experience can become meaningful. In
short, values provide human beings with the very possibility of existence as persons.
Instead of sitting in a value vacuum devising imaginary institutional procedures and
academic methods and adopting unpractical procedures and strategies, teachers should make the
students develop a sense of commitment to these values and abide and live by these values.
CONCLUSION
Value education, directly or indirectly, attempts to help students answer some of the basic
questions they ask themselves, through positive approach and attitudinal changes. Values-
clarification process will enable them to live by conviction rather than convenience. Knowledge
of values, attitudes, needs and their ideas and actual selves, will lead them to an awareness of self
and others, thus making their interactions and responses more fruitful. Research has proved that
one-student develops a sense of purpose and direction which, consequently, provides a basis for
individual and unified collective action. It will also enable them to make choices which would
help their personal growth and enrich the common good.

REFERENCES
1. Ruhela, S.P. (Ed.) (1986). Human Values and Education. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers
Pvt.Ltd.
2. Narayan Karan Reddy, V. (1979). Man, Education and Values. New Delhi: B.R.Publishing
Corporation.
3. Bharatwaj, Tilak Raj. (1999). Education of Human Values. New Delhi: Mittal Publications.
4. Cooper, D. (ed) (1986). Education, values and Mind. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

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