Need for a human values course

In preface to A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics: Presenting a Universal Approach to Value Education – through Self-exploration, Gaur et al. (2010) wrote that despite a well planned activity in the name of progress, and in spite of all the advancements of science and technology, man has problems on all the fronts: individual, family, social, environmental. People are stressed. There is insecurity, mistrust and generation gap. It seems that Vidya (i.e. education) has failed to serve its goals. It is completely cut-off from life, from values, from character building. Ideally the aims of education include generation and distribution of knowledge, personality development, moral education, training for an economic activity of one’s choice, and a critical reflection on education process itself. Modern India is undergoing a process of revolutionary expansion of education but education has failed to achieve any of its aims. It does not inform. It does not make one happy. It does not provide jobs. It does not perform a critical function. It does not lead to a harmonious relationship with nature.

Quality of education delivered in educational institutions, from primary school level to top universities, is often questioned in media as well as academic circles. Education institutions are marred by corruption. In society communal conflicts, exploitation, terrorism and rising violence, and environmental problems show that something is fundamentally wrong with our education process. There is a need for a special type of education (i.e., value education) that promotes mutual co-existence and harmony at all levels. Thus along with development of science and technology there is a need to ask: what is valuable to a human being? For Gaur et al. the answer lies in training students, particularly students of science and technology, in values. This justifies the need for value education.