Importance of Teaching Values at School

Discuss the importance of Value-based Education at Primary school level
Values are deeply held beliefs about what is good, right, and appropriate. Values are deep-seated and remain constant over time. We accumulate our values from childhood based on teachings and observations of our parents, teachers, religious leaders, and other influential and powerful people.
Values affect our lives every moment. They are a guiding force in all we do and pursue. When our values are in congruence with our actions, we are in harmony. The literal meaning of the word ‘value’ is anything or any sort of thing that can have qualities.
According to:
Albert Einstein
-“The true value of a human being can be found in the degree to which he has attained liberation from the self,”
Ayn Rand
-“Happiness is that state of conscious which proceeds from the achievement of one’s values”
Mohandas karamchand Gandhi
-He conveyed his message of values through the 3 monkeys.

I speak no evil I see no evil I hear no evil

Education is defined as the process that opens up our mind and Value-Based Education provides us with necessary skills which will contribute to the holistic development of oneself. It has now become very important to introduce value-based education at primary level to promote good citizenship and develop social values. Nowadays, life has changed a lot where the world is more modernised and with the influence of media, children tend to go astray. Before it was the role of the parents and society to teach values to children, however, now that parents work and they give less time to their children, values education tend to decrease in those situations. This is why now values education has been integrated in the primary school curriculum.
We have also new trends and lifestyles prevailing in our society where it has become a must to teach children about values so as to live a peaceful life. Being educated and getting a good job, a big house, lovely family and all the luxuries of life is not a perfect life, it will become one only if the person is really worth all these and who possess all the qualities and values to be a good human being. Therefore, through values education, children will develop good habits and virtues since a very young age so as to become responsible citizens of tomorrow. However, teaching values is not only the work of the teacher, but it will require parents, grand-parents, uncles, aunts, cousins, friends, neighbours and all of society participation. This is why teaching them values, is so essential to them and our future. They can then become successful, happy, healthy, productive adults with strong values, willing to face life with confidence.
When we teach good values to our children, they are less likely to undergo remedial character adjustments during adolescence. School life, much like the family home atmosphere, is important to our children. Many teens and kids learn very bad habits at school and take them home. This often causes discomfort for parents because the bad habits they transport home often contradict the good values taught at home. This is why values now form part of our primary school curriculum to prevent these problems from happening and also to cater for the needs of other children who do not get the chance of learning values from their parents.

Challenges facing the teacher for the effective implementation of Value-based Education at school level The purpose of teaching values at school is to promote good citizenship. It has also laid emphasis on the development of social values, thinking skills and problem solving skills where it also help in developing children’s character, behaviour and self-confidence. The aims of teaching values are as follows: * To prepare the child to play the role of an active citizen * To get the child to value his/her identity * To develop the character of the child, build self-confidence and positive attitude in life * To get the child to appreciate and respect the environment * To help the child to develop empathy, good relationships with others and be aware of their responsibilities
In values education, children will be taught about civic values which will prepare them in playing the role of an active citizen. They will also be taught about the living values which will develop their character and thus, all these will contribute for the holistic development of the child. However, there are challenges awaiting the teacher for teaching values at school. Every culture has his own way of teaching values and this could be a great challenge for the teacher at school as he/she would be dealing with about 40 pupils which will be of different cultures.
Another challenge facing the teacher would be the social background of the children. Some children may come from good family where the parents take the responsibility of teaching values to their children. But, there are also children who come from poor family or who have been simply abandoned by their parents. All these depend on whom the children view as role models. So, this is also a factor affecting the teaching of values at school. The teacher needs to cater for the needs of each of his pupils. Therefore, finding ways how to reach his pupils and not by hurting their self-esteem or feelings, the teacher finds it challenging to teach values.
Another factor affecting teaching of values is the influence of mass media over children. Even though, parents and the society teach values to children, we find that our children get easily influenced by media and they tend to ignore what they have learnt. This will also be a challenge for the teacher as well. There are films and video games which influence children. Studies have shown that media can bring fear, increase aggressive and anti-social behaviours. It can also lead to health related problems. Therefore, the teacher needs to find ways of teaching values in such a way that the children do not get influenced easily by media which becomes another challenge for the teacher.