Limitations

There are, however, certain limitations of value education. First of all, value education does not contribute to professional skills and, therefore, students may not take as much interest in this as in other technical subjects. Secondly, it is difficult to evaluate how much of value education material has been assimilated by the student. Mere reproduction of what has been taught in the class in examinations does not indicate anything. The fact that the student has been provided value education does not mean that his value system has changed. The impact of values (or disvalues) learnt at home or in school is very powerful. Education in universal values should be seen only as a countervailing force against the particularistic values acquired earlier. Fourthly, value education is not to be equated with religious or spiritual education. Some people wrongly think that it is so and there is also a tendency on the part of teachers and parents to use value education for religious instructions. It must be clarified that value education does not require the support of religion although many universal values may be supported by one’s religious beliefs. Lastly, value education is not a substitute for social sciences, legal reforms, social movements or protest. The students need to be sensitized to leading social issues of their age separately. The value education course is not a substitute for sociology, psychology, economics, and constitutional analysis.