APPENDIX B : SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS OF HIGH LEVEL SEMINAR ON VALUE-ORIENTED EDUCATION (SIMLA, MAY 27-28, 1981)
During the two-day discussion on the basic concepts, issues and principles of moral education and the needed action in this field the following points emerged as consensus:-
1. Provision for value-oriented education should be made throughout the country with due regard for flexibility of approach.
2. Value-oriented education should be regarded essentially as an education for becoming and self-exceeding. It will not only provide information on values to students, but also for enabling them to grow into beings and transcend narrowness, selfishness and partial ideas and attitudes. It should be viewed in the context of the present situation of man and the evolutionary process going on within him and his society. 3. Value-orientation should be the main focus of education.
4. This value-oriented should be not only for the children who are in the schools but also for those who are outside. Even parents should be involved in it. In fact the whole society has to be involved in the programme of value-oriented education.
5. The learning process itself has a great bearing on the value-orientation of children. All activities in the school- curriculum making, instructional techniques and evaluation, etc. should be so designed that they lead to the spontaneous development of desirable values.
6. There is a need for producing literature especially designed for the value-orientation of education.
7. All teachers in the schools should be regarded as teachers of value-education and all subjects including physical education can be used for inculcation of right values.
8. There should be an integrated approach in the value- oriented education programme. Instead of tackling piece-meal such areas as awareness of ecology, environmental protection, community development, productivity, population stabilisation, aesthetic education national integration, and international understanding, etc. they should be handled in a comprehensive manner under the broad spectrum of social responsibility and inner development of human personality. Concerned Ministries of the Government should cooperate with one another in this building task.
9. There should be foundation courses both at the secondary schools and universities aiming at giving the children basic knowledge about India, its people and cultural tradition. The course should also aim at making students feel proud of their country and responsible for the upliftment.
10. Some pilot projects for school improvement should be taken up and the Government of India should constitute a Steering Committee for this purpose.
11. There is a need for establishing a resource centre for literature on value-oriented education. Besides printed matter this centre should also produce 35 mm films em-
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phasising desirable values. An effective distribution system for making these materials available in all corners of the country should be developed.
12. Special schools, designed for value-oriented education should be established. Every State should have at least one institution which may impart value-oriented education from nursery to the post-graduate level.
13. Special teacher-orientation programmes should be taken up at the State level to train teachers in the effective methods of development of value among students and teachers.
14. Some case-studies of schools, where value education is being imparted successfully should be taken up.
15. There should be a national council for discipline consisting of people who would have moral authority in their own right, and who could guide development of value-education programmes. Members of this Council could be invited by State educational authorities and other agencies concerned with education for guidance and advice.
16. There should be an education for the enforcement of law. A code of conduct for every class of persons should be developed and value-education programme for the whole society should be so designed that everybody learns to respect the social order.