SECTION A
Essay
125 marks
Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make a man more clever devil.
WRITE IN
90 min
1,000–1,200 words
Reading the topic
The topic says education that imparts skills without values produces cleverer wrongdoers. The examiner expects an essay showing that knowledge is morally neutral, that schooling must build character as well as capability, and how values can be taught without indoctrination.
ThesisEducation without values multiplies the power to do harm, so moral education must accompany knowledge, not follow it.
Dimensions to cover
- 1Individual: skilled but unethical professionals can do more damage than the unskilled
- 2Science: technical knowledge has been used for atrocities when ethics was absent
- 3Economy: corporate and financial frauds are often designed by highly educated people
- 4Governance: corruption by educated officials shows schooling alone does not ensure integrity
- 5Education system: exam focus crowds out ethics, empathy and civic values
- 6Methods: values are learned through example, discussion and practice, not moral lectures
Counter-view
- Some argue values come from family and society, not school, and teaching them risks indoctrination. The essay should show schools can teach reasoning about ethics without imposing dogma
Open and close
- Open: Open with a brilliant chemistry graduate who uses his skills to adulterate medicines profitably, while his unschooled neighbour returns a lost wallet
- Close: Conclude that a nation should judge its schools by the integrity, not just the cleverness, of those they produce
Where marks usually go
- Writing only about the value of education, ignoring the 'clever devil' warning
- Moralising without examples of educated wrongdoing
- Ignoring how values can be taught
Examples that fit
- ThinkerGandhi listed 'knowledge without character' among his seven social sins, directly matching this topic.M.K. Gandhi, Young India, 1925
- HistoryThe Nuremberg doctors' trial of 1946-47 tried highly trained physicians for medical experiments, leading to the Nuremberg Code on consent.Nuremberg Code, 1947
- CaseEnron's collapse in 2001 exposed fraud by highly educated executives, showing cleverness without integrity.US Senate investigations into Enron, 2002
- HistoryThe University Education Commission of 1948-49, chaired by S. Radhakrishnan, stressed moral and spiritual values in education.Report of the University Education Commission, 1949