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SCIENCE EDUCATION AND SPIRITUALITY
(An Experiment in School Education)
Deepika Kothari
Let me begin with the most inspiring words which so lucidly defines and cmphasises the need and importance of values in education
"The most important human endeavour is the striving for mora. lity in our actions. Our inner balance and even our very existence depend on it. Only morality in our actions can give beauty & dignity to life.
To make this a living force and bring it to clear consciousness is perhaps the foremost task of education.
The foundation of morality should not be made dependent on myth nor tied to any authority lest doubt about the myth or about the legitimacy of the authority imperil the foundation of sound judgement and action."1
"A serious defect in the school curriculum is the absence of provision for education in social, moral and spiritual values. In the life of the majority of Indians, religion is a great motivating force and is intimately bound up with the formation of character and the inculcation of ethical values A national system of education that is related to the life, needs and aspirations of the people cannot afford to ignore this purposeful force. We recommend, therefore, that conscious and organised attempts be made for imparting education in social, moral and spiritual values, with the help, wherever possible, of the ethical teachings of great religions.''S
The importance of value education and the need for its implementation in education has been felt not only in India but world over. Various education commissions of this country have recommended its inclusion in school curriculum again and again, but the fact remains that till now not a single effective and sustained curriculum has been evolved which caters to the needs & aspiriations of school system as a whole. However few attempts were made by NCERT, private and religious organisations but for some reason or the other it could not find its proper place in the present day school curriculum. The main reason for its failure, in our opinion, was that value education (soeial, moral & spiritual) was treated as a separate subject in schools & not interwoven with the already existing curri.
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