By Mayuri Khanna:
Wherever I used to read any news related to verdicts of khap panchayats, violence against women or any social issues, I used to think that it is, more or less, because of the lack of education as [envoke_twitter_link]education leads to social change.[/envoke_twitter_link]
Education helps us in gaining knowledge, develop our perspectives towards people and society and help us to grow as civilised individuals.
But that is not true in its contemporary sense. If education develops one’s perspective towards people and life; if it helps people to grow as ‘matured’ individuals, then most of the large-scale corruption scams would not have taken place and cases of violence against housekeepers in urban societies would not have occurred.
So what is missing? The problem is, we have a faulty education system that teaches the skill of competition.
From a very young age, students are taught the skill of competing with classmates – for marks, recognition or achievement in sports. And in this rat race the basic human values and moral principles take a back seat.
Many students just compete for marks and it becomes the criterion for being in the ‘good books’ of society and parents.
Family, friends and relatives are just worried about marks and fail to see the pressure and frustration that the child is going through. This usually results in the child developing low self-esteem for not being able to fulfil the expectations of the so-called ‘social group’.
[envoke_twitter_link]Education is far more than the marks a person receives.[/envoke_twitter_link]
[envoke_twitter_link]Education should be such that it develops wisdom[/envoke_twitter_link] and the power of differentiating between right and wrong.
For inculcating the sense of wisdom, inclusion of value education in the core curriculum should be a must.
[envoke_twitter_link]Value education prepares the child to withstand life as it is[/envoke_twitter_link]; to be closer to reality. Reality is not only about the external one but it is also inner i.e. the capability of an individual to withstand failures, hardships and struggles of life without pouring out frustration on others, that take the form of violence.
For the proper implementation of value education, all the stakeholders – parents, children, teachers and school administration have to work together.
Though education has been given due importance in our constitution as well as in government policies, education without values will only generate human machines that are emotionless and self-centric.