Bhubaneswar, December 18: The Odisha Government has introduced a new compulsory course titled “Ethics and Values” at the undergraduate (UG) level.
The book for the first unit of this course is released on Saturday by Higher Education Minister Arun Sahoo who attended the book release function of the Odisha State Higher Education Council as chief guest.
Odisha State Higher Education Council (OSHEC) is the nodal authority as far as this new course is concerned. All Universities have already approved this new course in their respective Board of Studies (BOS).
Introduction of a course on “Ethics and Values” has been a long-standing wish of the State Government. Initiated during a number of brainstorming sessions OSHEC with esteemed academicians of the state, the idea was to demonstrate the concept of contemporary ethics and value system to our students through analysis of few selected examples of social, personal and professional conflicts that confront the youth in their daily lives.
Since the course was visualised as a compulsory course for all disciplines, it was to be dealing with practical aspect of ethics and value systems applicable to day to day life and decisions. The sole objective is to develop an awareness and sensitivity in the students in relation to their interactions with the society at large and to empower them to distinguish good from evil, justice from injustice, fair practice from unfair practice as well as motivating them to internalize their duties, obligations and rights as responsible citizens.
This course addresses life issues and hence, is one of the courses that require a practical interface of theory and real-life situations. Therefore, it has been prepared for the undergraduate curriculum as an Ability Enhancement Compulsory Course module. The entire course is divided in to six units (six credits); 1 unit of 1 credit (15 classes) to be taught in each semester for all the streams and disciplines. Each unit addresses a specific social issue that has a great relevance to shaping ethics and values in young minds. Unit wise books will be made available in hard copy format as well as in freely downloadable format in OSHEC (https://oshec.nic.in) as well as https: //vtputkal.odisha.gov.in sites. Video lectures are also prepared which will be made available as freely downloadable video lectures at the same sites.
