The Hindu Business Line : <I>Will value education get anywhere?</I>

Reams of paper and millions of sound bytes have been used up in the media on the introduction of sex education in some States, whereas, to my mind, of much greater concern is the near fading away of value education from the curriculum.

A time there was when the so-called moral lessons were a weekly item in the time-tables of schools and colleges. I remember, for instance, in Loyola College, where I studied, Rev Father L.D. Murphy, used to impart these lessons every Monday, free of any religious connotation whatsoever, so much so we students irreverently called him (behind his back, of course!) `Monday Morning Moral Murphy'!

Classes in all educational institutions used to begin with students assembling for prayers, followed by a few general remarks on being and doing good by the Headmaster or the Principal, after which pupils filed back to their respective classes. Those were also the days when society, in general, was acutely sensitive about even trivial deviation from a very stringently observed value code.

A person who defaulted in repayment of a loan of ten rupees or was fined a couple of rupees for going without a light in his cycle felt as if he had become the scum of the earth and long shied away from meeting his friends and relatives. Marriages would be called off on the ground of the family being involved in what nowadays would be considered a trial for an inconsequential offence.

Those were also the days when role models adorned public life in great abundance.

More than just shining brilliantly as freedom fighters, orators, litterateurs, scientists, journalists, and so on, they were also resplendent beacons of eternal verities illumining the paths of rectitude, social commitment and ethical conduct for others. They were a great inspiration to the younger generation who aspired to acquire the same stature of pillars of probity as those models who were heroes to them.

Irony

Alas, to what levels has public and private life sunk! You cannot tell anyone these days, "I have heard such a lot about you!," for, he will quickly shoot back: "But nothing has been proved as yet!" Those who run educational institutions say that they find it embarrassing to hold classes on values because the students point to criminals in politics and even in Cabinets, defrauders of thousands of crores of rupees enjoying themselves, law-breakers masquerading as law-makers, persons holding high offices indulging in corruption, and notorious desperadoes thriving with no one being able to lift a little finger against them and ask how they could flout values and still could lord it over other sections of society!

From the look of things, every public office, from the police constable to Vice-Chancellor's, seems to be on sale.

I was, in fact, given the well-established tariff for illegal gratification for appointment as Vice-Chancellors of various Universities, and was told of one Vice-Chancellor openly stating, without binding his listeners to secrecy, that his post cost so many crores!

A time is fast approaching, it seems, when there will be no need for any investigative agencies or courts of law because the political class brazenly and promptly declares anyone of their ilk accused of heinous offences as innocent and helps him or her ascend the ladder of name and fame with impunity. In short, law grinds the poor and rich men rule the law, as Oliver Goldsmith said of his times.

The irony is that even today, those at the grassroots are still clinging to the old-time values. Farmers are committing suicide for their inability to repay loans of a few lakhs of rupees, while no harm comes to swindlers at the top.

B.S. RAGHAVAN