INTRODUCTION
An increasing number of leaders of thought and action have begun to inquire deeply into the maladies of our times and it is increasingly realised that these maladies are results of a disequilibrium between the ideals that mankind has been labouring to formulate during the recent centuries and the disconcerting actualities which refuse obstinately to change. With the passing of every decade, we seem to be coming nearer to a point where the realisation of the ideals will become imperative and where, at the same time, it will seem impossible to accomplish this realisation. In other words, we seem to be heading to an acute crisis.
A huge structure is being built up with an increasing insistence on efficiency needed for industrialised society, leaving practically no room for the growth of profounder human and spiritual consciousness which alone can rightly and wisely guide human volition in taking decisions in the critical times that seem to lie ahead of us. While under the pressure of the technological development, the world is shrinking, and we are dreaming of the possibility of a planetary civilization, we have not yet the required corresponding psychological development which can enable the human consciousness to sustain such a planetary civilization. On the contrary, there is a growing preponderance of those impulses which can thrive only through ignorance, fragmentation, discord and violence.
As we study the situation, we feel convinced that it is a vain chimera to believe that the world can be changed without a radical change in the human consciousness. It seems, therefore, right and just that the wisest leaders of today have declared unambiguously that the future of the human race is dependent exclusively upon a radical transformation of human consciousness, and that one of the most important means of effecting this transformation is an integral and value-oriented education.
Happily during the first decades of the present century, some of the greatest educationists of India devoted their life-time to the actualization of the needed new educational system. The fruits of their pioneering experiments are available to us, eventhough they have not been sufficiently acknowledged or appreciated. In recent years since the Independence, an increasing stress is being laid on the formulation of objectives of education that aim at uniting science and humanism, ethics and aesthetics, and material welfare with spiritual welfare. This is clearly discernible in the Reports of various commissions and committees that were constituted by the Government since 1948. And during the last two years, the Government have expressed the urgent need to formulate concrete and practical plans for value-oriented education.
As an important consequence of this concern, a Conference was held in May, 1981, at Simla to think seriously on the meaning and scope of value-oriented education and to formulate practical guidelines for Governmental action. This Conference was presided over by the Union Education Minister and was attended by some of the best educationists of our country. This Conference recommended, inter alia, that value-orientation should be the central focus of education and that teachers should be given the necessary training in the effective methods of development of values among students and teachers.
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At the same time the Government of India, in their Order No. F. 13-4/80-Schools 3, dated 23rd May, 1981 (Appendix-A) constituted a Working Group to review the teacher training programmes with a view to promoting value-education, consisting of the following members:
1. Shri Kireet Joshi Chairman
Educational Adviser
Ministry of Education and Culture
Department of Education.
2. Dr. Shib K. Mitra Member
Director, NCERT.
3. Shri S. Sathyam Member
joint Secretary,
Ministry of Education and Culture.
4. Prof. V. S. jha Member
868 Wright Town
Jha Marg, Jabalpur.
5. Prof. J. J. Nanavaty Member
11, Napier Road, Pune.
6. Dr. R. C. Das Member-Secretary
Head of the Department
Department of Teacher Education
NCERT.
The terms of reference of the Working Group as revised in the Government of India letter No. F. 13-4/80-Schools 3 dated 14th September, 1981 (Appendix-B) are as follows :
(i) To suggest the necessary changes in the present content and scope of valueorientation in education with special reference to the need to ensure development and promotion among students and teachers not only of the highest values of physical, emotional, mental, aesthetic, moral and spiritual culture but also of those values which are uniquely Indian, and which would promote secularism, pride in heritage and composite culture;
(ii) To suggest a programme of the study of the national freedom struggle;
(iii) To suggest the curriculum content for teacher trainees to achieve the desired value-orientation;
(iv) To suggest special techniques of pedagogy for training in value-orientation;
(v) To suggest strategies for reorientating serving teachers through inservice programmes;
(vi) To suggest ways of promoting participation of voluntary organisations in organising training courses for teachers;
(vii) To assess dimensions of effort required as also to indicate the extent of governmental inputs;
(viii) To make suggestions which would be relevant to the determination of the new roles of teachers as counsellors and guides instead of as mere lecturers; and
(ix) To determine the important tasks that teachers will need to undertake towards preparing the new educational materials keeping in view the challenges of our times.
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The Working Group invited the following persons as co-opted members:
1. Miss Kamala Vasudev,
Principal,
Government Co-Educational Teachers' Training Institute,
Daryaganj, New Delhi.
2. Prof. V. Eswara Reddy,
Education Department,
Osmania University,
Hyderabad.
3. Prof. (Miss) S. Varshney,
New D/5 Near Cooperative Stores,
Banaras Hindu University,
Varanasi.
4. Dr. (Mrs) G. P. Sherry,
Principal,
Dayalbagh Women's College or Education,
Agra.
5. Prof. P. N. Dave,
Head, CAPE Group,
NCERT.
6. Dr. R. M. Kalra,
Deputy Educational Adviser,
Youth Services,
Ministry of Education & Culture,
New Delhi.
The Committee had several meetings on the dates mentioned
below:
1st Meeting . . . . 6th August, 1981
2nd Meeting . . . . 25th September, 1981
3rd Meeting . . . . 17th October, 1981
4th Meeting . . . . 28th November, 1981
5th Meeting . . . . 19th December, 1981
6th Meeting . . . . 25th January, 1982
7th Meeting . . . . 27th March, 1982
8th Meeting . . . . 3rd May, 1982
9th Meeting . . . . 29th June, 1982
At the beginning, the Working Group tried to clarify the terms of reference and the basic ideas mentioned therein. Members of the Working Group expressed their views on the concepts of "Secularism, Pride in Heritage and Composite Culture". Letters were also sent to eminent persons outside the Working Group to obtain their views on these concepts. The Working Group also discussed the nature and scope of social and ethical values to be inculcated among students and how these differ from religious instruction. Members of the Working Group also made studies of books depicting various aspects of our culture and heritage so as to identify the aspects that may be included in the education on values.
The Working Group then discussed the programme of study of the National Freedom Struggle. In this connection, it was noted that NCERT had developed a set of pictorial
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materials depicting the National Freedom Struggle. The Working Group witnessed an exhibition of these materials organised by the NCERT and gave their suggestions for its improvement. It was suggested that NCERT may develop a small handbook incorporating these pictures so that it can be used for teaching the National Freedom Struggle.
It was suggested that the present curriculum of teacher training may be scrutinised so as to identify the value orientation given therein. Dr. B. R. Goyal, Lecturer, NCERT, was requested to do this exercise and this was presented to the Working Group by him. The NCERT Department of Education in Social Sciences and Humanities, was also requested to make a study of the values mentioned in the textbooks developed by the NCERT for classes I to VIII. The analyses of the text-books was also done by this Department and this was presented to the Working Group.
Before undertaking a discussion as to the content and method of value education for teachers, Prof. V. S. Jha was requested to prepare a paper on the kind of teacher we want. Accordingly, Prof V. S. Jha prepared a paper entitled 'Teacher and his task' which was presented and accepted by the Working Group for inclusion in the body of the Report.
The Working Group then decided that the members should collect inspiring stories which may be suggested as supplementary readings in teacher training institutions as well as in schools. Members collected such stories which were scrutinised against the following criteria and recommended for use in teaching of values (Appendix-A) :
(i) The story should be written in beautiful and chaste language;
(ii) It should be of deep human interest but avoid parables or extalling any particular religion;
(iii) It should not contain plots of cunning and cheating;
(iv) The general atmosphere of the story should be such as to glorify truth, beauty and goodness.
A number of papers were presented by the members on different aspects of inculcation of values in teacher education and these were discussed in the meetings of the Working Group. Some of these papers formed the main Chapters of the report while the others (list at Appendix-D) were discussed and utilised in arriving at the main recommendations.
There was much discussion on "Pride in Heritage and Composite Culture" as stated in the terms of reference. Some members wrote papers on it and also collected views and extracts from selected books which are recommended as illustrative readings on Indian Culture (Appendix-B & C). In this connection, a Special Meeting of the local members of the Committee was held on June 11th, 1982, to which Prof. G. C. Pande, Professor and Head, Department of Ancient History, Culture and Archaeology, Allahabad University, was invited to present his views on Indian Culture. In addition to local members, Prof V. S. Jha who was in Delhi on that date, also attended the meeting. It was agreed that a study of the achievements of Indian Culture should be a part of the curriculum of teacher education.
The main body of the report which follows is compiled from a paper on "The Teacher and His Task" by Prof V. S. Jha and other papers written by Prof. Kireet Joshi which were presented to the Group and adopted unanimously for inclusion in the main body of the report.