Moral or professional standards of behaviour, principles

Text of Speech by President’s Counsel, Additional Solicitor General A. Gnanathasan, as a guest of honour at the 53rd Annual General Meeting of the Hartley College Past Pupils’ Association (Colombo Branch) on July 26 at Wadduwa

President’s Counsel, Additional Solicitor General A. Gnanathasan

Education is not literacy alone and it includes inculcation of proper values to develop the personality of an individual, help to realize his true potential. A fully developed personality realizes the true potential of the individual and enriches the society and thereby augments the human resources of the nation.

The education system must aim in this direction. This being the object and purpose of education, the Education Policy and the Program for its implementation must be such as to promote the true object. The role of the teachers who are the most important part of the education program and environment in educational institutions must be attuned to this concept and must measure up to this need.

Teaching of values has to be an integral part for the education system to make it worthwhile. Every student of Hartley College has a similar advantage.

Future success based on education has broadly three aspects, personal, professional and National or Universal.

Basic needs

Personal excellence automatically brings professional excellence which in turn transcends to excellence at the national or even universal level. It then enriches the nation or humanity. The aim should be to reach the highest level of potential. But for that result, the basic need is to be first a good human being. Literacy has to be combined with good values to attain the end product of a good human being.

The level of spiritual, ethnical and cultural values determines the degree of civilization of a society. Education is an effective tool for inculcating values.

The objective of an educational system must be to inculcate these values and to promote these ideals. The values of compassion for human beings and all living beings forms part of the Sri Lankan ethos.

Cultural heritage

The value of spiritual knowledge was emphasized by Swami Vivekananda. It is a part of our cultural heritage. He said: I quote;

“Spiritual knowledge is the only thing that can destroy our miseries for ever; any other knowledge satisfies wants only for a time.... He who gives man spiritual knowledge is the greatest benefactor of mankind and as such we always find that those were the most powerful of men who helped man in his spiritual needs, because spirituality is the true basis of all our activities in life. A spiritually strong and sound man will be strong in every other respect, if he so wishes.”

The purpose of real education is impart such knowledge and to banish ignorance. Every educational institution must aim at and focus in this direction.

The values are best inculcated by practice and not mere precept. The education of a child begins at birth and the greatest impact is made by the atmosphere in which the child grows. Values practised in the family have a great impact. Next to it, is the impact made of the atmosphere in the educational institutions. That is the significance of the teachers, who should be role models for the students.

(‘Higher Education in America’ by Aglo D. Henderson and Jean Glidden Hendersen)

The purpose of higher education is indicated thus:

“As society becomes more and more complex, the institutions are pressed to assume social obligations - to train for employment, to solve social problems, to help set ethnical directions for society. The purposes of higher education are several fold. They are concerned with student growth and development, the discovery and refinement of knowledge, and social impacts on the community. But all of the programs should be oriented to a central purpose”.

Good citizens

In the ultimate analysis, the real success in life or profession is achieved, only if you are accepted in society as a good citizen. The test of a good citizen for all is the same, irrespective of the profession to which you belong.

To be a good citizen you must be a good man. Righteous conducts embracing every facet of life essential for the sustenance and welfare of the individual and the society and the rule which guide and enable the accomplishment of the trains of nobility have to be cherished and imbibed to become a good man. Critical scrutiny is the process which achieves the best result. The primary duty as a citizen must never be forgotten.

The Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka.

Chapter VI Article 27 on Fundamental Duties, is as follows:

(g) raising the moral and cultural standards of the people, and ensuring the full development of human personality; and

(h) the complete eradication of illiteracy and the assurance to all persons of the right to universal and equal access to education at all levels.

The State shall ensure equality of opportunity to citizens, so that no citizen shall suffer any disability on the ground of race, religion, language, caste, sex, political opinion or occupation. (In the Government sector, discrimination has largely been eliminated.

However, discrimination needs to be eliminated in the private sector as well). This would happen if the people in the private sector practise the universal values of equal treatment).

Article 27(10)

The State shall assist the development of the cultures and the languages of the people.

Article 27 (11)

The State shall create the necessary economic and social environment to enable people of all religious faiths to make a reality of their religious principles.

(A multi-cultural and multi-linguistic society promotes values of harmony)

Article 27 (12)

The State shall recognize and protect the family as the basic unit of society.

(The family is where values are first learned and practised).

Article 27 (13)

The State shall promote with special care the interests of children and youth, so as to ensure their full development, physical, mental, moral, religious and social and to protect them from exploitation and discrimination. (This is the responsibility of all schools).

The brief reference to the duties enumerated in Article 27 as shown their comprehensive nature. They encompass the entire gamut of human behaviour in a civilized society. This is the Constitutional mandate to every citizen of Sri Lanka. In fact there is nothing new in article 27 to the Sri Lankan ethos and it is merely a reiteration of the values of our ancient cultural heritage is eloquent testimony of its richness.

Education system

All that is needed is to incorporate it in the education system and implement it effectively to make the product-true education.

In more recent times Mahathma Gandhi and Mother Teressa carried forward this message in India. It is these values which have been always form part of the Sri Lankan way of life. Article 27 reiterates the cherished Sri Lankan values.

For the sake of precision and to focus attention on the salient features of our cultural values, the need is to ensure that curriculum incorporates methods for imparting such education and the teacher’s purpose is oriented around those values. The best method for imparting education in values is that the elders in the family and the teachers in the institutions are role models for the students. Greater attention and emphasis is needed in this direction.

National Character

Character building is an essential part of eduction. Education must help to inculcate in every student the citizenship values. “The hope of Sri Lanka is value-based education. Late C. Rajagopalachari emphasized the significance of National character, thus;

“National Character is the Keystone on which rests the fate and future of our public affairs, not this or that ‘ism’.

“National Character depends on and in fact is individual rectitude.

“Individual honesty must be brought into being before we can hope for improvement of national affairs.

“If the parched field of Indian politics and administration has to get fresh green life and grow, we need the monsoon of purity in national character. And the monsoon consists of little drops falling and uniting to make the rain. Individual purity of character alone can revive the parched field. Let’s regain our good character quickly and all will be well-politics, administration and economic conditions.”

The silent majority must become active. It will make all the difference to the result. Social sanction is more effective than the legal sanction. Edmend Burke said I quote “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”