FOCUSING ON THE VALUES / CHARACTER EDUCATION OF STUDENTS

Contributed by Alma C. Matawaran – Samal, Bataan

The 21^stcentury schools face enormous challenge in the education of the young people in their charge. In addition to providing youth with basic academic knowledge and skills and promoting their character development, schools have increasingly been called upon to play a primary role in helping solve a variety of social problems among youth.

The number of students entering schools without the basic values is alarmingly increasing. There are depressing newspaper reports that the suspects and culprits in different crimes are minors. In the school, cases of cheating, absenteeism, tardiness, lack of self-discipline and lackluster approach to school works are common.

Indeed, the Philippine educational system is challenged by a plethora of problems many of which tend to reflect societal ills. The greatest of these concerns classroom discipline.

Public school employees have reported that there is a visible increase in the occurence of physical violence, as well as distressing and concomitant student indifference. Joining educators in the belief that discipline problems are of paramount importance is the general public, which has ranked discipline as the third largest problem facing public schools, superseded only by a lack of proper financial support and drug abuse.

Throughout history, our Constitution and educational system have had two primary goals: to educate people intellectually and to teach them to be morally good. The educators believe that students had a need for values education because the people must develop democratic virtues.. These virtues included respect for individual rights, respect for law, participation in public life voluntarily, and a concern for the common good of the country

Character education remained a part of public education in the Philippines until the 1980s through stories, teacher example and discipline. According to the Department of Education (2006), in the 1980s and 1990s character education changed dramatically when value clarification, moral dilemma discussions, and decision-making processes replaced the traditional emphasis on learning right from wrong and acting right. These programs failed to distinguish between the personal preferences of students and true moral values. Today, with the increased problems that society faces, more traditional character education is being confronted.

During the last decade, this trend of neglecting to teach character has changed with the introduction of values education programs by the Department of Education (DepED). People are now talking about the importance of character and personal integrity.

Many principals spend a significant amount of time dealing within appropriate student behavior. Character education programs are proactive approaches to improve discipline in the schools, but do they make a difference? If character education reduces disciplinary problems, instills compassion and caring, promotes citizenship, and develops a moral conscience in students, it would be a worthwhile endeavor in terms of time and money spent. If values education does not affect the manner in which students behave, then resources can and should be reallocated

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