 VALEDICTORY

SATURDAY, 9TH SEPTEMBER, 1995

The three day National Seminar-cum-Workshop on Value Education organised by the CBSE in collaboration with Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan concluded on 9th September 1995.

At the Valedictory Session held at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan at 3.30 P.M. Shri Kirit Joshi, former Special Secretary, Ministry of Education and Culture delivered the Valedictory address. Shri Veeraraghavan welcomed the Chief Guest and thanked him for agreeing to deliver the Valedictory address even at a short notice. He mentioned that Shri Joshi is among the most eminent educationists of the country. He briefly referred to his work at Aurobindo School, Pondicherry.

Dr. J.N. Sharma, Course-Director, summed LIP the proceedings of the Seminar and explained in detail the deliberations and discussions held oil various topics. He pointed out that after the lectures by the Resource persons in five plenary sessions, all the participants were divided into four groups to discuss the following topics in detail:

1. Practices followed for promoting Value Education at present.

2, Methodologies and teaching techniques for promoting Value Education including role of mass media.

3. Minimum programme of action on Value Education in school including assessment and evaluation.

4. Orientation of teachers including Principals.

Above mentioned four groups discussed these topics in detail in the light of the lead papers submitted by the Resource persons. Thereafter the Group Leaders of each group were requested to present the reports/recommendations of their respective groups.

Prof. B.P. Khandelwal, Chairman CBSE appreciated the work done by the participants in the group discussions and bringing out useful recommendations.

Chief Guest Mr. Kirit Joshi expressed his happiness on being invited to the Seminar- Cum-Workshop on Value Education. He mentioned that before India became free, five attempts were made in the area of promoting value education by Swami Dayananda, Swami Vivekananda, Rabindranath Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi and Sri Aurobindo. Lessons of these five distinguished and learned sons of India have neither ben absorbed nor learnt by India. The new India, free India is till suffering, from the malady of education system. And if this malady has to be remedied, we have to be radical, we have to revolutionize.

Institutions like WERT, UGC, CBSE, NIEPA are only halfway houses in this direction. A Full House, a new house has to be built and this can be achieved only if value

education seeps into the education system. To bring about the change, he suggested three prepositions.

(a) Sovereignty of the child

(b) Sovereignty of the teacher

If the education is built on the basis of these three sovereignties (which he had suggested to Mrs. Gandhi also) then full House of Value Education will be evolved,

Shri Kirit Joshi went on to add that to his great happiness the reports presented by the four workshop groups had all the three sovereignties.

Value education, he said, should happen as a reality and if it is not implemented at government level then let it be at grass roots and the teachers and pupils should come forward.

He expressed his happiness about Bharatiya Vidya bhavan and CBSE joining hands for this noble venture. He described Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan's founder Dr. K.M. Munshi as the great son of India who through his all time great novels has inspired all parts of India.

Mr. Kirit Joshi then put forward two concrete proposals for promoting value education.

(a) To. produce right learning material which CBSE can fruitfully do by commissioning best people to discover the best of best stories of the world. 10 to 12 such best books should be produced that the children should fall in love with.

(b) Not to make value Education Examination oriented, CBSE should create a new kind of exam, a national voluntary exam of those who want to take it, absolutely no compulsion.

Stage I of that exam will be the maintenance of a progress report by the child from class VIII to XII, keeping a record of what the child thinks is the best in him/her.

Stage II will be the physical fitness certificate.

Stage III Written paper on the best part of Indian culture that they have learnt from reference books (like I.A.S. Examination).

Evaluation part will consist of continuous assessment and will be based or an interview on the basis of the Progress Report maintained by the child,

Mr. Kirit Joshi concluded by wishing Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and CBSE the best of luck in this well meaning venture.

In the Valedictory Session, the participants of the National Seminar unanimously passed a Resolution on Value Education address dressed to the Ministry of Information and Broadcast- ing, Central Board of Film Censor land Doordarshan. (copy of the Resolution reproduced in the beginning).