Would you believe it, the article below has just appeared in today's Kathmandu post and at least tells us we are on the right lines with our plans for this next year, including the teaching of P4C techniques. On the one hand it's gratifying, but on the other hand we can't help but feel like we have been visionary and right all along!
KATHMANDU, DEC 18 -
Concluding that the new breed of students are exhibiting an ever diminishing level of morality in the absence of moral teaching, the Curriculum Development Centre (CDC) is endorsing moral education as a separate and compulsory subject in the school-level curriculum.
The reform comes almost one-and-a-half decades after the government dropped the “Naitik Sikshya” [moral education] course from its old curriculum. The CDC believes the course will infuse students with morality. The syllabus that has been approved by the Ministry of Education will get an entry as a compulsory course —Moral Education—in grades six to eight. The course will have 50 marks in the annual examination. Chitra Prasad Devkota, Director General of the CDC, said, “If the work goes as planned, the course will be incorporated in the curriculum from the upcoming session.” The textbook will give students a ready set of values, rights and wrongs that helps them to fortify their faculty of judgment in the long run.
The CDC took the step as teachers and intellectuals suggested the necessity of moral education to reverse the dropping standards of morality in students.
Education experts hold exposure of children to violent films and decade-long conflict in the country responsible for the violent activities today’s kids have internalised. “Moral lessons in schools can play a crucial role in mitigating such types of problem,” Bidhya Nath Koirala, an education expert, said. “It will help develop a sense of rights, duty, honour, non violence and humanity.” According to Devkota, the book will deal mainly with six topics. It will include the norms and values the world has adopted as well as individuals’ responsibility and duty. The book will also comprise lessons on peace, truth, good behaviour and non-violence.
“The moral education imparted during the Panchayat era intended to promote the partyless regime and religion,” said Devkota. “But, the new syllabus will teach students self-discipline.”
Click HERE for the actual article
Posted on: 2010-12-19 09:18
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