What is Ethics:

Generally it means a
set of principles of right conduct. It also
refers to basic concepts and
fundamental principles of decent
human conduct, obedience to the law ,
concern for health and safety.
 Education:
Education is an on-
going process. We are always receiving
and passing it on, adding something in
the process, sometimes even taking
certain things, impertinent from time to
time, away from it while passing it on
further.

However, the industry of education is a
serious one, requiring well defined ethics
and values, well bound in visible legal
outlines to regulate its exchange and
distribution.

 Why Ethics is important and why ethics should be
taught in schools? What kind of ethics should be
taught in schools?

Ethics in education can be divided into four stages:

Ethical Education in Family.

Ethical Education in School.
Ethical Education in University.
Ethical Education in Business .

 In family, ethics education should focus on
descriptive facts. Children observe their
parents (role models) ethical behaviours and
they learn social facts about ethical behaviour.
In school, students learn what is right and what
is wrong. This is a value education or character
education. In educational systems, generally
ethics is associated with religion. Therefore,
instead of ethics as a course students take
religious course. However, students should learn
values clarification and making ethical
decision. In addition, school fosters students to
become trustful, responsible, and justified
person. Ethics in school can benefit students
with this quality.
 In university, ethics should be professional
ethics. Only some students are able take
ethics as a course related to their
professions in universities, because in
universities ethics is not offeres as a course
in all departments. This kind of ethical
education provides students to realize what
is right, make good decisions about ethical
issues in their professions. In addition,
students learn to evaluate different moral
standpoints.
In business, people learn some ethical
codes about their occupations This kind of
ethics tells how people should act in their
business life.
 Education Resources with respect to
special education.
Choice of Teacher.
School Uniforms- Should they be made
compulsory?
Discipline Issues.
Addressing Diversity.
Unfair Assessment.
o Teachers Absenteeism.
o Privatization of Educational institutes .
o Corruption in Teaching.
o Political Interference.
o Boundaries in Teacher-student
Relationships:
Communicational boundaries.
Cultural Boundaries.
Emotional Boundaries.
 The passing of the education for all
handicapped children act in 1975 by the
Federal Government marked the first
milestone in special education of children
with disabilities.
But prior to this act, handicapped children
had no other resource but to attend
general public schools and curriculum
which were not appropriate with respect to
their special requirements.
 The eternal contention between a
principal and the parents regarding
which teacher the child in question
should be assigned to the following year
is one of the major moral issues in
education.
There are two, very predictable
outcomes to this debate:
Either the principal uneasily resigns to
parental logic or
 The former evade the latters request by
making a blanket statement saying it is
not in school policy to honor parents
opinion as far as choice of teaching
faculty goes.
o This one also has two sides to it a for
side and an against side. Arguments in
favor of imposing uniforms observe what
the lack of a uniform dress code has
done to school campuses nationwide
immodest piercing, provocative or too
casual attire, outrageous hair colors and
styles etc.
 Advocates against imposing school
uniform argue that clothing has no
effect, whatsoever on education and
what one wears to school has no
bearing on what is taught at school.
Also state the latter, it is not necessary
that all students are able to afford a
uniform - would they be denied
education for want of a uniform?
o To put in old short, it is the age old zero
tolerance policy v/s give them another
chance policy. Both the policies should
work side-by-side in all education or
other institutes.
o The opportunities however should not be
kept unlimited for the same default by
the same individual. Giving second
chances do not translate into spare-the-
rod and spoil-the child attitude!
o With students from socially and ethnically
diverse backgrounds seeking admissions in
schools/colleges today, the issue of
whether or not to address diversity poses a
serious question!
o Racial inequality and ethnic differences
have been an issue in public / private
schools since the time they were found. The
foremost step towards addressing diversity
in schools should come from the curriculum
itself.
o Course assessments of student learning
must be objective, valid and fair but at
present there are many factors that may
affect fairness in grading. Teachers should
also avoid letting unrelated or personal
biases which affect their grading of student
assessments. It is now a major problem in
the field of teaching where many
institutions and universities are taking illegal
money to conduct manipulated
assessments.
o Also practical marks are given to
students after exploiting them in different
ways, which leads to frustration and
dissatisfaction amongst the students as
well as teachers or trainees.
o Example: According to a group of
teachers involved in assessing Gujarat
Board answer sheets said that It takes
only 1.5 minutes to assess a entire answer
sheet irrespective of its length !
o Teachers are considered to be role models
of students. They are amongst the most
educated and respected personalities in
the society. Teachers are the, spreader of
knowledge who helps developing pupils
understanding, attitudes, skills, learning and
core values. While continuous teachers
absenteeism would set wrong and negative
example for it students. The major
drawback is that it affects the curriculum
which needs to be completed with due
justification in class within a given period of
time.
o The UNESCOS International Institute of
Education planning study on corruption
in education state that there is 25%
teacher absenteeism in India which is
among the highest in the world. In Bihar
two of every five teacher were reported
absent daily, the figure in UP was
reported to be 1/3rd of the total
teachers.
o Not only does it affects the quality of
education but also results in the wastage
of 22.5% of education funds of India.
Teacher absenteeism is one of the most
serious causes of declining of education.
And it also promotes pupil absenteeism.
o Government allowed to open self-
financing private teacher institutions with
recognition, which may be termed as
commercial private teacher education
institutions. With the mushrooming of
these private institutes in the modern era,
the education has acquired the status of
a marketable commodity, where
educational institutes are the traders and
students are the customers.
o These institutions started courses like
B.Ed,D.Ed,M.Ed,BP.Ed and many more
without basic infrastructure and qualified
teaching faculties. They started
appointing those teachers that are low
salaried and far away from the
standards.
o Private ventures often focus on profits
and where Motive is profit Education
takes Back Seat.
o There was a time when corruption was
only in government offices, private
institutions police stations etc. But now a
days corruption has spread its roots in
education system also.
o Corruption in education sector can be
defined as the systematic use of public
office for private benefit, whose impact
is significant on the availability and
quality of educational goods and
services.
o Corruption in education can include
bribes and illegal fees for admission and
examination; academic fraud,
withholding teacher salaries(for school
managements selfish motive),
preferential promotion and placement,
charging students for tutoring sessions
to cover the curriculum needed to pass
mandatory examinations which should
have been taught in the classroom and
infrastructural work.
 The political sources are also responsible for
misuse of human resource management in
education. Political parties often use
teachers as their party workers and these
teachers also participate willingly in politics.
Those teachers who are very close to
political leaders have records of
misconduct and unethical behavior such
as irregularity in class teaching, remaining
absent from school without taking leave.
o Political leaders, high level bureaucrats
and member of teacher unions also
attempt to influence decision- making
regarding the recruitment and transfers
of teachers in government
schools/colleges.
o So the moral and ethical commitment of
teachers gets tampered over the years
due to political interference.
o Boundaries in teacher student
relationship is a major concern to be
thought of:
Communicational Boundaries:
When either student or the teacher
faces obstructions while communicating
with each other.
 Cultural Boundaries:
This type of
limitation can be easily overcomed if each
and every individual develops positive
attitude towards cultural diversities.
Emotional Boundaries:
There must be one
protocol between teachers and students
regarding Emotional regulations. An
appropriate level of emotions should be
shared as whats appropriate for one child
might totally be inappropriate for another.
 Sindh Education Minister Nisar Ahmed
Khuhro(karachi) claims to have trained
almost 35,000 teachers in collaboration with
the Canadian International Development
Agency (Cida) since 2006 but the prospects
of the project that utilises almost 60 per
cent of the Rs1.2 billion grant, remain in
doubt as Dr Zubair Ahmed Shaikh, who led
the project for a period of 10 months,
revealed its dismal state.
 The famous JNU case:
Jawaharlal Nehru University students protest
against the the 2013 hanging of parliament
attack convict Afzal Guru blew up in the
protester's faces and generated outrage after
it was publicised in the mainstream media.
The students, allegedly seen shouting slogans
supporting Afzal Guru and Kashmiri separatism
triggered the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi
Parishad (ABVP), the BJP's student wing, who
wrote to the Vice Chancellor that such
marches should not be held on campus.
 In a recent Wall Street Journal article,
Psychology professor Steven Davis says
that cheating by high school students
has increased from about 20 % in the
1940s to 75 % today.

Students say cheating in high

school is for grades, cheating in
college is for a career.
 U.S ARMY SAYS
We Will Not Lie, Steal Or Cheat,
Nor Tolerate Among Us Anyone Who
Does
Which do you think is the harder part: Line
1 or Line 2? Why?

o Teddy Roosevelt said, To educate a

person in mind and not in morals is to
educate a menace to society.
 Shillong, May 6 2011: Caught with a
mobile phone in class, a 14-year-old
girl(Class IX student of Loreto Convent )
jumped off the first floor of her school
building yesterday when she was being
taken to the principal. The principal said
that the girl was calm even after being
caught red-handed with the mobile
phone. However, while walking from her
seat to the classrooms door, she
suddenly sped away to the corridor and
jumped off the first floor through a
window,
 A student of an engineering college at Purba
Medinipur district (kolkata) attacked a teacher
with an iron rod who had caught him while
using unfair means in the examination. The
student was arrested and the teacher of the
engineering college was admitted to a
hospital in the city with serious head injury.

Sunil a class IX student committed suicide as he

was mentally tortured by his class mates and
the teachers without looking into the truth of
the incident, harassed him and asked him to
go back home and call his parents.