The lost generation: children of paradise isle

Lionel Wijesiri

When I ponder what is happening in our education system today, I am both frightened and frustrated by the fact that too many students see school as a proving ground rather than a training ground. The idea is not confined to the students. Even our adults assess the value of education in the same manner as they assess the value of land or of shares in the stock-exchange market. They want to provide their children only such education as would enable them to earn more. They hardly give any thought to the improvement of the character of the educated. As long as such ideas persist there is no hope of our ever knowing the true value of education.

Value-based education system need of the hour. ANCL library photo

Having a degree should not give anyone power. Real power is being able to make the choice between good or evil, life and death, between empowerment and nurturing of people or putting people down. Today values have become words mired in controversy, embraced and reviled that we scarcely know how to use them, without turning them into slogans.

Value-based education

In Sri Lanka, we have an outcome-based education which claims a knowledge-based assessment of student's performance. However, outcome-based education has been often labelled as controversial because the emphasis in this system is on higher reading standards. Basically, at the end of each term or year, the student's memory retention power is tested.

The system does not adequately emphasize the educational and cultural values among students. Some educationalists consider it a 'dumping down' of education in which factual matter is replaced by vague learning outcome.

Therefore, I believe what we need today is a holistic approach to students' education, one that provides complete education of mind and body through critical thinking and innovative approaches. Education should aim at multifaceted development of a human being - his intellectual, physical, spiritual and ethical development.

Youth is the mirror in which future of a nation is fully reflected.

In order to preserve, maintain and advance the position of our country in the world, it is imperative that there should be a comprehensive program of value-based education starting from the pre-primary level, embracing the entire spectrum of educational process.

Advocates of value-based education argue that educating students about values is more important than just teaching them maths, biology, or even literature. In short, true education not only moulds the new generation but also reflects a society's fundamental assumptions about itself and the individuals that compose it.

Historical concept

When we regained Independence, the British left us a legacy of Colleges and Polytechnics in line with their orthodox concept of educational institutions and universities as places for mainly humanistic studies, to cover provision for skills to explore resource potential, to produce goods and services, to negotiate terms of transaction and to manage material wealth.

Our age-old value system began to change. Individual achievement or success through one's own efforts started to be regarded as most important of all values, as was the spirit of competition, with its corollary on the survival-of-the-fittest. Hard work, deferred gratification and continual striving were another set of highly valued ways to succeed. Individual freedom along with the material progress also became important values in life. The school system started giving emphasis on these aspects in their content, method and structure. Material progress became the indicator for development of the society and the emphasis on moral education began to reduce significantly.

People started laying emphasis on private property and this belief converted much green area into concrete buildings, in the name of urban development. The belief in material progress has polluted the air and water in the name of industrial development. In the commercialized society, values changed, with concentration on material progress.

Religious education was confined to temples and other religious institutions with more emphasis on understanding the basics of each religion. The greatest contribution of religious leaders in such times could have been to invite people to think and helping them to make intelligent and value-based decisions as the more important responsibility and the more useful assistance.

The challenge

As we stand still and look around today, we see more and more important things beginning to change for worse. The globalization phenomena have contributed to the widening of disparities among peoples. It has brought about ethnic conflicts, nationalism and religious fanaticism. Never has one felt so much need for tolerance and a culture of peace. The greed for material progress has brooked no limits. Deforestation and global warming are consequences of industrial development making the earth more and more inhospitable.

The concern for the protection of the environment has never been so important. All these considerations lead us to the re-articulation of the need for value-based education in the twenty-first Century; in content, structure and method.

While the basic values of seeking the truth, practising honesty and appreciating beauty, remain intact, secular values like tolerance, self respect, love for human dignity, respect and compassion for others, individual freedom and human rights, internationalism, rejection of cruelty, the practice of non-violence and the culture of peace have become more important today because of the problems facing the society.

Thus, it is evident that we have a huge challenge to meet. Education must develop the ability to value freedom and the skills to meet this challenge; it must develop the ability to recognize and accept the values which exist in the diversity of individuals, genders, peoples and cultures and develop the ability to communicate, share and co-operate with others; it must develop the ability of non-violent conflict resolution and promote the development of inner peace in the minds of students so that they can establish firmly the qualities of tolerance, compassion, sharing and caring; it must cultivate in citizens the ability to make informal choices; it must teach citizens to respect the cultural heritage, protect the environment, adopt methods of production and consumption leading to sustainable development with harmony between individuals and collective values and between immediate basic needs and long-term interests. And finally it must cultivate feelings of solidarity and equity at the national level.

All educational institutions, local or national, private or Government owned, have to work together to make value-based education an essential component of educational programs to change the attitudes and behaviour of the society. Education being an integral part of every individual's life in society, the right type of value-based education should be offered in the right type of environment to the students. The schools should focus on value-based education for development of a knowledge-based society, so that quality education will bring more accolades to their students and the schools themselves.

This will ensure that students grow in both mind and heart, and learn the special virtues of life. This may change people's attitudes from one of only gaining an education for a particular job and the basic skills that are needed to make a living.