Pakistani Secondary School Students’ Education for Values: Policy Analysis

Abstract

The importance of values education is now widely acknowledged as one of the most important aspects of teachers’ responsibilities. However, how well do Pakistan’s national education policy documents reflect this vision and mission? The present qualitative study aimed to explore the recommendations of all National Education Policy documents from 1947 to 2009 for the inculcation of values in students at secondary schools. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyse policy documents with the help of NVivo 12 software. The study’s findings suggest that almost all the education policy documents have a clear vision and mission for the inculcation of values in students to make them good citizens of Pakistan. The policy documents have all focused on instilling values that will enable students to be compassionate, caring, hard workers, honest, trustworthy, and good citizens of Pakistan. However, no notable implementation strategy that may adopt for the promotion of values education in educational institutions was found in policy documents. A revision of policy and planning is recommended to strengthen teachers’ practices at the classroom level to instil values in secondary school students.