Moral education means teaching children in a way that will help them develop as moral, civic and good-mannered citizens. Moral education covers a person’s character and morality and inculcates cultural and ethical values in him. It must be a part of the school curriculum and it should be the duty and responsibility of teachers to develop humility, truthfulness, honesty, courtesy, tolerance, and sacrifice in youth.

What values should be emphasized upon?

• Respect: Parents and teachers should try to establish a connect with youngsters and build a relation based on respect so that each youngster may feel loved and valued.
• Indian culture: The children in schools must be exposed to the Indian culture, its way of life and how to treat seniors, parents, teachers, and women. This will ensure making students responsible citizens.
• Love and affection: Love and respect is missing in today’s generation. They are just becoming selfish and materialistic, unlike their previous generations. So, moral education is a necessity these days.
• Courage: Willingness to do difficult things in difficult situations. Courage is the ability to face fear in a situation that is difficult or not pleasing. It is about confronting agony and pain bravely under unfavorable circumstances. This habit also needs to bring in children.
• Compassion: Understanding the sorrows and sufferings of others or self and wanting to do something about it. It involves allowing yourself to be moved by suffering and getting motivated enough to help alleviate and prevent it.
• Acceptance: Acceptance means having an objective attitude towards the ideologies and practices of others that differ from your own. Accepting that different people have a different opinion and that no opinion shall be considered wrong (Especially if it is something that you do not believe in) will help children to develop better citizens.
• Quality: Equality means treating everyone with equal respect. That everyone is equal before the law and has equal rights. Equality in terms of opportunities and status.
• Fairness: Fairness means acting in a fair/ just way. It means treating everyone according to the law and order. The quality of being just, or free from bias or injustice.
• Generosity: Generosity is a willingness to give resources, help or time to others. It is the quality or state of being prepared to do something readily. It really affects the character of a child.
• Honesty: Honesty is definitely the best policy. Honesty is being truthful and sincere. Honesty involves being trustworthy, fair, loyal and sincere. It is the quality everyone should inculcate. Honestly of a person reciprocates his or her truthfulness.
• Integrity: Integrity is sticking to one’s moral and ethical principles and values. It is the quality of being honest and having strong moral ethics. State of being. It is similar to honesty and truthfulness.
• Kindness: Kindness means being considerate enough and treating others well and equally. It is depicted by one’s actions towards others. It is a virtue that many cultures and religions recognize with.
• Perseverance: Perseverance is persisting in a course of action, belief or purpose. It is a continuous effort to achieve something irrespective of multiple failures.
• Politeness: Politeness refers to acting in socially acceptable ways. It is the reciprocation of good manners or etiquette. It means being aware of and respecting the feelings and opinions of others.
• Responsibility: Responsibility is being reliable and authoritative. It means taking up a task or duty and rightfully completing it. Also indicating that if something goes wrong, it will be the fault of the person taking responsibility.
• Self -control: It l is staying in control of your words and behavior. It is an ability to properly regulate one’s behavior, thoughts, actions, impulses, and emotions
• Good behavior towards others: One of the most important things you can do is set a good example for your children. They learn from seeing how you treat them, overhearing your interactions with others and observing what you do in different situations throughout the day.
• Apologize when making mistakes: When you fall short with your children, not only do you need to acknowledge your mistake, you also need to tell them you’re sorry. This shows them that you value and respect their thoughts, perspectives, and feelings. You’re also modeling an important way to show respect to others, and how to accept responsibility for your mistakes.
• Accountable for mistakes: Your children may get themselves into trouble now and then. They might break the neighbor’s window playing baseball, perform poorly on the job and get fired or disobey school rules and receive detention.
• Face challenges: Don’t let your children take the easy way out of challenges Along the same line, you should require your children to finish projects they start, even if their endeavors get tough, tiring or mundane.
• Helping nature: Involve your children in encouraging and helping others Encourage your children to help others whenever they can. It’s amazing how helpful they can be to others just through simple acts of kindness, such as making get-well cards for people who are sick, befriending shy or new kids at school, opening the grocery store door for a mom pushing a stroller or making some small talk with the elderly lady sitting by herself at the park

How it leads to a prosperous society?

• Developing physical and intellectual growth: Moral growth is as essential as physical and intellectual growth. An education without values is directionless. So, moral education should be an essential part of the school curriculum.
• Disciplined society: By inculcating moral values children will become more discipline towards their colleagues and elders. They will show respect to everyone.
• Crime-free society possible: A good human being is more important than a literate person without humanity. Moral education must be a part of the curriculum not only in schools but in each college and university as well. Until and unless we as teacher and parents and as elders do not teach our children about the ethics, moral values, then how can we expect a good society
• Development of society: It is a moral education that will shape and monitor the growth and development of a good nation and society. Then there will be no news of rape, molestation, theft, murder, accident.
• Boon for nation: A student with 100 percent marks but no etiquettes will always be considered as zero, whereas an average student with high moral values is a boon for the nation. The concept of moral education is wider in scope and includes ethics, etiquette, strong value system, respect for elders and love for children, etc. Parents and teachers play an important role in a child’s life.
• Bring change in the world: Children are able to judge and differentiate between right and wrong if they are taught moral values at a very young age. It definitely changes how they perceive the world and behave once they are adults.
• Eradicating social evils: Moral Values can boost self-confidence and be a key to self-motivation. They help in eradicating dishonesty, violence, cheating, jealousy from one’s life. Moral values give you balance in your life.

The recent years have seen a significant rise in the instances of juvenile crime in India. In this context, it is essential to inculcate moral values in children from the early stages itself in order to build a peaceful and prosperous society.