What is value education?

If values are important for society then there has to be a provision for value education. What is value education? In ordinary language the term value education refers to transmission of values, usually from older generation to younger generation. Value education is required by all irrespective of age, sex and social position. Sometimes the members of older generation also need to be taught the values: the values of younger generation. Values change and the new generations may not believe in several values of the older generations. It is in the common interest of both old and young to learn new values and reflect how the new values serve the interests of society better. This calls for promotion of value education.

From common man’s perspective, value education concentrates on topics such as happiness, love, equality, humility, peace, simplicity, cooperation, honesty, unity, etc. It is taught informally in all social situations and is formally included in schools and colleges for children and young adults. Everyday experiences show that education without value education can lead to wrong results. While the education aims at distribution of knowledge and promotion of creativity, the value education aims at facilitating right application of knowledge. Both experts and laypersons think that to build a good society one needs moral reforms both at the individual and the social levels. In India, Chakraborty has produced several books in which he argues for value based management in industrial and business organizations (Chakraborty and Chatterjee, 1993; Chakraborty and Chatterjee, 1999; Chakraborty and Chakraborty, 2008). Guha (2008, 2009) has also contributed significantly to literature on teaching of value and virtues in different contexts. In the age of globalization and mobility of people from one country to another, more and more countries are going to become religiously and culturally plural. This creates a need for mutual understanding of other religions and cultures, and strengthening of universal human values. Value education can fill this vacuum (Menon, 2006).