While new ‘’BHARAT’’ is successfully marching towards becoming a ‘’VISHWAGURU’’ in every field of its endeavor , the thing about which we all have gone into oblivion is, that India has always been a beacon star for the entire human race when it comes to education ,values ,traditions and culture.
The indian civilization has survived the toughest test of time, while other contemporary civilizations have been either completely lost or have lost their significance in today’s changed times
The greatness of Indian civilization can be conspicuously found in its pages of history having the presence of some of the most divine and ideal personalities like lord Rama ,lord Krishna, Kautilya, Kalidasa and the world famous institutions like Nalanda, Takshshila and many more. The corner stone of such a rich heritage I,e. Indian Civilization has been its Unique Educational System.
However, in today’s times the word Education, its purpose, its components and its outcome have lost their true meaning. Unfortunately, owing to our misconception “Westernization Is Modernization and Western Education is full proof Education’ ’the way, we have started perceiving the word education has become lopsided, incomplete and flawed.
The element which is perhaps missing and if not which highly undervalued and underutilized in our educational system is ‘’Values’’. Education without values is like food without nutrition. While food feeds our body and unnutritional food can lead to the state of malnutrition, education which is bereft of values can always lead to the intellectual and behavioral malnourishment. Education without values can sometimes become counterproductive and carries a threat of being used as a destructive weapon against the humanity.
Education in isolation is a double edged weapon, but infusing values into education makes it a creative tool using which, a beautiful future can always be crafted.
The quality of education is directly proportional to the quality of society we all live in, every society has good as well as evil elements but the forces which help the good to outweigh the evil, ensure that the society remains livable for the mankind. The most important among such strong forces is Value Education.
In Indian context, the purpose of education has always been deep, broad and well structured, it is not only the acquisition of knowledge but the complete liberation through right thoughts, right conduct and right actions. In the current era of technology our small ones are exposed to numerous distractions and at the same time they have become vulnerable to the misuse of technology.
While the increasing screen time of children, behavioral changes in their tender age, children’s diminishing tolerance level are some of the immediate challenges before us, the long-term consequences of our so called “Modern Lifestyle’ ’are going to be devastating if not circumscribed and checked on priority.
Value education at a first glance, may appear to be a complex phenomenon. But the best part about value education is that, it can be practiced through small and simple daily activities like inculcating saving habit in our children ,donating food and other necessities to the need people though our children, honoring the traffic rules while we travel with our children, respecting the community helpers and having empathy towards them etc. These activities might sound ordinary but their impact on a child’s life is extraordinary.
The maximum development of a child’s brain takes place in his/her first eight years, sowing the seeds of values like kindness, compassion, gratitude, courage, selflessness, honesty in a child’s life in his/her early life will certainly help a child to grow as a responsible and ideal citizen of the nation.
We need not find the source of value education anywhere else, our scriptures, our traditions, and our culture are the biggest reservoirs of value education. All we need to do is to dig deeper in the most fertile soil of our great civilization till the point we understand that, the Mahabharata and Ramayana were not only stories, Abhimanyu was meant to teach us courage, Arjuna was meant to teach us Focus, Karna was meant to teach us Loyalty, Bhagwan Rama was meant to teach us Maryada, Bhagwan Krishna was meant to teach us Nishkam Karma, Laxmana was meant to teach us selfless service and Mata Sita was meant to teach us purity.
NEP is a commendable step towards making the experiential value based learning a living reality, at the same time it has shouldered all of us with new and additional responsibilities. Teachers being the first line commanders of social change have now a major role to play in overhauling the entire education system by using the value based experiential learning model.
Value less education is like a sea voyage without a compass, a child learning only through books is not being educated in true sense. We all should firmly resolve to shape the future of our country by using the “Shaping Hands of Value Education” so as to make our country a VISHWAGURU in true sense and in true spirit.
