Knowledge and Values

This is the time of the year when inspiring thoughts on education, teachers and students are expressed on the occasion of Teacher’s Day and at presentation of awards to educationists as well as students who have excelled in education and exams. This year the focus of many eminent speakers has been on the importance of imparting values through the education system.

While presenting the National Awards for 2011 to teachers on Teacher’s Day this year, President Pranab Mukherjee said, “our motto should be: all for knowledge, and knowledge for all.” In fact he was repeating what he had said in his eve of Independence Day speech. Words worth repeating in the context of the Right to Education Act. Spreading education to every nook and corner of the country is itself a value that we need to take very seriously on our national agenda. Not only literacy but true education. The President went on to say, “to build the India of our dreams, the first and foremost task before us is to improve the quality of education… providing education which is rich in values and modern in content.” Our problem has been that we have concentrated much, and rightly so, on improving content but failed to match it with emphasis on the inculcation of right values. In fact, our moral and ethics classes are treated as the least important. These should be given as much attention, if not more, as physical education and sports.

Our former President, Dr Abdul Kalam also spoke about knowledge combined with purity of life. It is reported that he even called for “a new crop of teachers who need to teach responsibly and impart a value system to students”, and emphasized “the importance of purity of life and knowledge”. This is a timely call by a former president who is an eminent scientist. Dr Kalam is definitely modern and technology driven. He knows too well that one can scale the heights of achievement only with dedication and sacrifice. Technology is a tool for enhancement when used properly but can also be a tool for distraction. It can also be the vehicle that leads our young astray with quick and vast exposure to violence and pornography. Our children need guidance, proper orientation and ability to discern the pure and the impure.  Our influence counts. In the words of Henry Adams, “teachers affect eternity; one can never tell where their influence stops”. And when we talk of teachers, we must not forget that parents are the first teachers.

Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, while speaking recently as chief guest at the Award Presentation to top rankers by the V M Salgaocar Foundation, made it a point to stress on the importance of character formation. He said that he did not consider his qualification in Metallurgy from the IIT in Mumbai as important as his acquisition of character. He spoke at length on character building as a very important asset in the process of education. Speaking of Gandhiji’s seven blunders of the world, he stated that he had personally adopted two of them as his guiding principles for avoidance: knowledge without character and politics without principle. To these two, he added his own as the third: vision without execution.  However much we may receive as knowledge, we can put it to good and proper use only if we have character and values. Knowledge can be harmful when used wrongly and for wrong purposes, be it nuclear energy or information technology.

“Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value” - Albert Einstein

 The Chief Minister also dwelt on the need to give back to society and stated that his way of giving back to society was by being in politics. He told the audience how much the government invests in the education of each child, and more so in those students who are studying special courses like medicine. He asked the students to give a thought to giving back to society and not just make money at any cost.

We need to ponder over the thoughts expressed by the above mentioned personalities. They have spoken of the importance of knowledge through modern means and the necessity of values. Both are important. Both need to be imparted to our upcoming generation.

I conclude with the opening words of the School Anthem of my Alma Mater:

“Fruits of Virtue and of Knowledge

Here we gather Peace and power.”

Published in The Navhind Times, Panorama 16.09.2012