CBSE announcing plans to integrate value education into its curriculum

An astounding 70% of kids aged 13-18 think it’s fine to be dishonest in order to succeed. This is one among the key findings of a HT—C fore moral health survey

With the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) announcing plans to integrate value education into its curriculum, HT commissioned a survey carried out by C fore in major metropolitan cities to gauge moral proclivities of young people. One thousand students, between the ages of 13 and 18, were surveyed. The psychological profile that emerges is both worrying and encouraging.
Consider this: when asked if dishonesty was acceptable for success, 70% said yes. The response to whether it is fine to cheat one friend for another was split almost midway — 43% said ‘yes’ or ‘sometimes’, while 43% said ‘no’. The rest were unsure. Consumerism also seems entrenched within this group and causes competition among peers. Another place where competition shows up is popularity on social networks, considered overwhelmingly important.
On the positive side though, youngsters come across as confident with a high degree of self-belief. They are aware, sensitive and determined. “However, it appears that as they grow into adults, a lot of the positive values get sidelined,” says senior psychiatrist Dr Sanjay Chugh, who helped HT formulate the survey.
Between 2001 and 2010, the number of juvenile crimes rose from 16,509 to 22,740, a 37.7% increase, according to the National Crime Records Bureau. This is reflected in many recent incidents of violent crimes ( seebox). Dr Shyama Chona, an educationist and member of the CBSE says, “We’ve seen too many instances of children acting out. Value education used to be informal and expected. Now, formalisation in the syllabus will make it more serious. Righteousness will only emerge when you turn it to marks.”
Earlier this month, CBSE announced a first-of-its-kind system to connect academics with ethics. But measuring values education through marks is debatable, say experts. An official at the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) who requested anonymity, says, “You can’t assess values through exams. Evaluation has to be of processes, not the product. If you want to teach sanitary habits, create a sanitary environment at school. So if you want to teach integrity, display the same attitude in the classroom.”
Another concern is that values in the education system lack a societal connect. Dr Samir Parikh, director, mental health at Fortis agrees. “Merely making it a subject in a curriculum is not going to inculcate values,” he says. “We have become socially apathetic towards each other. Adults are struggling with moral ambiguity and teenagers are simply mirroring their behaviour,” he adds.

Character education is being debated across the world. In China, the government’s attempts to introduce moral education are being protested by the opposition on the claim that it will ‘brainwash’ students. In Australia and Singapore, value education models are funded by the state. In Australia, the local school community — teachers, parents and students — is involved in framing the programme. In the West, the issue is more complicated. The American system was earlier rooted in Christian fundamentals. During the Bush administration, attempts were made to equate moral education with conservative and Republican beliefs.
The Indian context gives moral education an added hue due to diversity in Indian society, says Chona. “We have to teach secularism, tolerance and an acceptance of multiculturalism,” she says.
Widening economic differences are also adding complexity. When respondents were asked about their attitude towards less-privileged students (after implementation of the Right To Education), 8% felt they should be taught separately while 37%, said ‘they can study in the same class but I wouldn’t hang out with them’. Such an outlook is being created and reinforced by adults. In Bangalore recently, a school’s indifference was put on display when a news report said that students admitted under RTE had been forced to sit in the back of the class, stand separately during assemblies and that a tuft of their hair was cut off by school authorities to distinguish them from other students.
Thus, while values education is required, experts say the approach could be better. “Introducing moral education through the curriculum is ambitious,” says Dr Sarada Balagopalan, a fellow at the Delhi-based Centre for the Study of Developing Societies and chief advisor to NCERT on Social and Political Life textbooks. She says, “We imbibe values from instruction, example, watching, seeing, and influences too numerous to be contained in a curriculum.”
CBSE’s move has begun for classes IX and X, and will be expanded in months to come. Subjects across the syllabus will contain moral lessons. For instance, in geography, teachers can stress on interdependence of countries, environmental responsibility and global unity. The results would then be judged in value-based questions in examinations.
CBSE is not the only one to focus on character education. In the International Baccalaureate (IB) schema, “Integrity lies at the centre of the learner’s profile,” says education consultant Abha Adams. In IB schools, 150 hours of community service is compulsory, and involves discussion and application of values.
Unfortunately, a 2010 study by the US department of education stated that value education programmes do not improve behaviour or performance of students. Perhaps then, India’s troubles are far worse than they seem.