The recent spate of unethical behaviour of children at the level of educational institutions in Mauritius leaves every concerned citizen speechless with agony. If the quality of education provided determines the type of human beings we shall be and the quality of life we shall lead, then the most legitimate question that begs asking is: ?Where have we gone wrong?? To that question, there may be as many reasons as there are pupils in a class.

One common thread, however, is that our system of education, blinded as it is by examination results, lacks the critical input of values in the curriculum. Educational institutions have a major role to play with regard to value-based education because in most cases the pupils themselves are helpless victims of their environment.

Children thirst for role-models. And the institutions which have traditionally been the most common providers of role-models have all miserably and irretrievably failed them : family breakdown, with divorce, separation and parental violence; teachers, many of whom fail to live up to the children?s expectations; sports heroes, with their credo of winning at all costs, unashamedly having recourse to performance-enhancing drugs; film heroes whose lives , onscreen and off-screen, are not lily-white by any standards. In such circumstances, whom do we expect our children to emulate?

One solution to the above problems, which is strongly advocated by the Association for Living Values Education International (ALIVE) and embraced by ALIVE Mauritius, is through value-laden stories because stories have a special appeal to children.

In fact, stories have a long ancestry since they have always been an integral part of man?s evolution. Their contribution has been rich and varied in near-equal measure, namely :

● mothers have been using stories to keep children?s attention focused in order to encourage them to eat more and throw fewer tantrums

● to lull children to sleep

● to keep farmers awake when they have to watch over crops all night

● shepherds having to graze their animals all day while away the time by engaging in fantasy

● like proverbs, stories help to make a point, especially in religious, political or educational discourses

● to transmit the knowledge and wisdom of ancestors from generation to generation

● stories from grand-parents have helped considerably in the emotional development of children. Such tales were told mostly in the open, often with audiences including children from neighbouring families

● to keep a closely-knit family/ society

● to promote human interaction

● teachers formerly used stories as a teaching strategy to encourage pupils to be attentive to the lessons taught in exchange for a story by the teacher towards the end of the class. (In this case, even pupils would monitor the behaviour of their classmates so as not to miss the story)

The reading of stories will help :

● restore the habit of reading, which our children have lost. This has had an adverse effect in the mastery of languages with regard to vocabulary, expressions, ideas, communication and pleasure

● transmit much-needed values to a society plagued with a pronounced degree of erosion of values

● provide role models since the traditional institutions seem to have abdicated that responsibility

● enable them to dream

Students will, hopefully, embrace the values embodied in the stories, realise attitudinal change, experience personal enrichment, implement improved practices and, eventually, become agents of change ? all with the help of the teacher.

Thus, stories can go a long way towards cementing the relationship between the teacher and the taught - - - for the welfare and benefit of one and all.

Dr Anand D. AWOOTAR PhD, D. LITT President, Association for Living Values Education (ALIVE) ? Mauritius