Dr Matiur Rahman :
Moral values are guidelines that assist a person in deciding between right and wrong. To create honest, credible, and fair judgments and relationships in daily life, the awareness of one’s morals – along with self-awareness – is crucial.
Moral values help a person to direct his behaviour in the right direction. Thus, the necessity of teaching moral values is undeniable. There is no alternative to education to free the nation from the crisis of moral values.
There are some ancient values of justice in our society that Bengalis have adopted as the bearers of their civilization and culture, such as truthfulness, non-violence, peace, forgiveness, perseverance, simplicity, thirst for knowledge, tolerance, cooperation, and respect for elders. Our society teaches moral values in art, literature, culture and religion.
The basic foundation of human moral life and morality is the values developed from the family. The family is the source of the moral values people cherish and follow most of their lives. Bangladesh is the cradle of thousands of years of traditional civilization and culture. In this society, the family tradition has survived for a long time, controlling the lifestyle of the largest population.
But recent urbanization, globalization, rapid expansion and development of economic life, expansion of technology, especially information technology, expansion of media, social media, the explosion of television and entertainment trade, globalization and rapid growth of business, global and domestic political system and culture and commercialization of education is profoundly influencing and rapidly changing traditional values.
In the recent era of globalization, there has been a massive decline in family values, policies and ethics. As a result, the children are growing up without any moral values. When the family cannot take responsibility for developing its moral values, its responsibility rests with the educational institution. It is seen that the educational institutions are not fulfilling this responsibility due to various adversities, negligence and indifference. The decline of moral values is a result of all these.
It has been observed that there is a crisis of moral values in Bangladesh nowadays. In most cases, the crisis is caused by the conflict of current values with the demands of modern life. The crisis of values has taken a definite shape in the present society, and the decay of moral values is ubiquitous. The humanitarian crisis that has arisen in the wake of the rampant corruption, the onslaught of terrorism, the frustration of the youths and the bleak picture of aimlessness is undoubtedly alarming.
The crisis of these values in personal life is manifesting in different ways. Judging by the nature of the society of modern Bangladesh, we see extreme degradation of social, economic, moral and religious values. The country is rife with bribery, corruption, social strife, religious orthodoxy, and moral decay. Instead of creating a learning-friendly environment in educational institutions, it has become an arena of politics. Copying tendencies, leaking of question papers, participation of students in unhealthy politics, fights, factionalism and power practice, intolerance of students, anti-social behaviour, and drug abuse have taken the form of social disorders. And at the root of all this is the absence of our morality and values.
The decay of principles, ethics and values has created a horrible societal situation. There is an atmosphere of political hegemony and social deterioration in the country. Teachers and employees often get involved in heinous activities like leaking question papers. We now witness horrific incidents of students insulting teachers, misbehaving, harassing and even killing. We have to be free from this situation.
The people of the society try to turn away from danger, from immorality. Students must overcome the values crisis, awaken life-philosophy values, and avoid conflicts between traditional and modern lifestyles. The crisis of importance in the human mind cannot be overcome if knowledge and science cannot reconcile lifestyle with technology-based life. As a result, security and peace will not return to society. Exemplary measures should be taken to eliminate the moral values crisis in primary and secondary educational institutions.
To create economic, social, moral and religious values, on the one hand, there will be the ability to generate interest in all kinds of work, to choose an independent course of action, self-control and self-awareness. The improvement of man’s inner world is the improvement of his moral quality. Education, religion, and a sense of principle all contribute to socialization.
The development of moral values is an essential responsibility of education. Moreover, people from all walks of life need moral education. To cultivate the ideal of individual life, universal spiritual values must be awakened in the student. Spiritual matters will make people honest. In this case, family ties need to be strengthened, and moral education in the family needs to be expanded and strengthened. Parents need to be encouraged to focus on the role of the family in spreading moral education among children.
After the family, the institution whose activities have the greatest and lasting impact on the moral life of the people in the educational institution. Not just in textbooks or information, not in lectures, as long as they are not consistently integrated into individual behaviour through practice, they will remain official.
(The writer is a researcher and
development worker).
