Thumbs up for values education

The education ministry has given its support to values-based learning, acknowledging it is the answer to negative attitudes and behaviour among some students in schools.

This view was aired by education principal secretary Macsuzie Mondon while officially opening a four-day "Living Values" conference this week for education and child care professionals.

Organised by the National Council for Children (NCC) with assistance from the Ministry of Education and Youth, the seminar was facilitated by two international experts – Mr Christopher Drake and Dr Derek Sankey.

Addressing the audience – who included the Minister for Education and Youth Mr Danny Faure and the Patron of the NCC Mrs Geva René – at the opening of the conference on Monday September 1 at the National Theatre, Mrs Mondon said the aim of the event was to develop an understanding of "the purpose of values-based learning and its place in our classrooms and in our schools."

PS Mondon said that some students demonstrated negative attitudes and behaviour, with little understanding of traditional values, mirroring the situation prevalent in our community, and suggested that values education held an answer to this.

She said that values education should be regarded as an "educational philosophy", which underpinned the way in which a school was organised and she congratulated those teachers who had already taken part in a Living Values training programme run by the NCC.

Mrs Mondon concluded by offering the Ministry of Education and Youth's continued support for the Living Values programme.

Mr Drake, on his third visit to Seychelles, said he had seen a "tremendous level of awareness and support which has grown up for and around values education."

Following an NCC video presentation which highlighted the "living values" of tolerance, cooperation, love, peace, honesty, humility and respect, Mr Drake said that values education needed to be incorporated into the overall education curriculum.

Mr Drake, who is based in Hong Kong and is the Living Values Coordinator for the region, took part in the first values education training sessions held in Seychelles in 2002.

Accompanying Mr Drake, Dr Sankey, who lectures at the Hong Kong Institute of Education, said that values should form part of a school, not part of any one subject, and that, "we need to make our schools into values-based environments, to make values part of children's daily lives."

Dr Sankey explained that the aim of the conference was to share ideas about how values could be given their place in the curriculum.

Asked about judging the impact of the Living Values scheme, Dr Sankey said: "If in five to ten years' time teachers sense that the environment in which they are working is better than it is now and if the children, once they've left school, can look back and say, that was very good, I enjoyed being there, then I think that will be a mark of success."

Based in New York, Living Values is an independent organisation supported by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) and UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund), which seeks to promote values in education, with Mr Drake and Dr Sankey as its representatives in China and the region, which extends as far as Seychelles.

LINKS