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.
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 commercialised
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 globalisation
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 recognise 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.
Virtues of life
All educational institutions, local or national, private or
Government owned, have to work together to make value-based education an
essential component of educational programmes 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 |