The overall purpose of education is to enable the student to live a happy life - in harmony with family, society as well as nature. As we have more and more educated people, we seeing an alarming trend at an overall global level - we can observe increasing strife in family and society; destruction of nature leading to significant and potentially irreversible climate change. In particular, we can see that some of the greatest achievements of science and industry have become the biggest threats to human existence.
There is a growing realization in the world today that the path being followed currently needs to be re-evaluated. Human Beings thought & actions depend on their education. If their education is right, their thought & actions are fulfilling otherwise they are not.
Various courses from foundation to pg levels & workshops have been developed to address these issues and making humane education. It facilitates discussion on life goals, reflection on what you are and what you really want to be, on relationships in family, society and with nature/existence. It follows a process of self verification, on the basis of one's own Natural Acceptance, leading to self-empowerment and personal transformation. It can provide the base and details for the sustained well-being of all, i.e. societal transformation. It is not a process of assuming nor a process of do's & don'ts.
There is a possibility of understanding the situation, developing a vision for the future and following through with responsibility & commitment – from this a totally different human order is possible – one which leads to continuity of happiness and prosperity - for all.
At the root is holistic, and all encompassing detailed view of reality at every level of existence, from Individual to Family, Society and Nature/Existence – that the existence is innately co-existence (harmony, order) and not a chaos or disorder and Man just needs to understand this co-existence and align with the innate order in the existence. With such a holistic viewpoint, one can rightly place existing assumptions and inputs. This knowledge is inherently self liberating, empowering and can lead to Human Conduct, Education, Constitution and Order in the society. Universal Human Values is an all encompassing, holistic perspective based on the existential reality - It is a proposal about the natural laws, on reality, as it is. The proposals are in a way that anyone can understand it on their own right.
Despite the tremendous advances in science & technology and despite increased literacy in society, we seem to be having an increase in crime, in broken marriages, in a breakdown of the family structure as a social unit, in instability in society, global warming and climate change.
Where are we going wrong?
Education prepares the mindset for the future generations. Do we want to continue having a society we have today with each one for himself/herself or do we want to build a better tomorrow for ourselves as well as for our children? Do we want tomorrow's society where one feels safe, has a feeling of care for every other person on the planet - care even towards plants and animals, all units in nature. Our resources are not unlimited - the way we are going about exploiting nature and misusing resources, the time is not far when we will find ourselves trapped. The need for inculcating human values has been voiced by every framer of education policy. The Supreme Court of India has also noted that while literacy has gone up tremendously from 12% in 1947 to 74% in 2011, there has been a steady decline in the human values. The educational establishment needs to work on a way out.
Since 2005, four universities are running this course in about 4000 colleges (as of Dec 2013) covering 28 universities in 5 states in India and all colleges in Bhutan, touching about 2,500,000 students per year. The feedback of the approximately 1000 teachers who have been teaching this subject, after doing the Workshop/Faculty development program (FDP), has been very encouraging. Every year this number is increasing.
In addition to teachers, this workshop is attended by people from every walk of life.
Explore this site to know more about the Universal Human Values work in education worldwide and be updated with the upcoming workshops, courses offered, conferences.
This site is to facilitate the study of Universal Human Values by faculty members as well as students.
You can find the schedule for upcoming workshops, faculty development programs and other related events. You may register by calling the contact person mentioned in the schedule. You can also download study material like presentations, practice sessions, how to teach value education, workshop videos etc.
A list of universities, where UHV is part of the core curriculum, is included in the materials. Similarly, a list of the resource persons is also included.
