ISJ April 2015: Peace and tolerance – value education discourse in India

Shweta Sharma

Abstract:

The highest education is that which does not merely give us information but makes our life in harmony with all existence.

(Rabindranath Tagore, 1917. p. 116-17)

As Rabindranath Tagore suggested, the greatest goal of education is to help individuals to live in harmony with self and with others. Peace has emerged as the most dominant value in the latest national education policy documents. It was found that the value discourse in National Curriculum Frameworks has undergone major transitions. In post independent times, the need to develop patriotism was realized. As a result, the earliest National Curriculum Framework ‘Curriculum for the Ten Year School’ (1975) differentiated democratic, spiritual and moral values. The value discourse discussed the importance of values like ‘compassion, endurance, courage, decision-making, resourcefulness, respect for others, team spirit, truthfulness, faithfulness, loyalty, duty and common good’ (p. 5).