The future of education is being shaped by artificial intelligence, immersive technologies, global connectivity, and an ever-growing demand for future-ready skills. Schools and universities across the world are redesigning curricula to prepare students for jobs that may not even exist yet.
But amid this relentless focus on employability, productivity, and performance, a deeper question is beginning to emerge: are we preparing children only to succeed professionally—or also to live meaningfully and responsibly?
For Sushma Paul Berlia, Chairman – Apeejay Education, this is perhaps the defining challenge of modern education. At a time when information is limitless but emotional resilience, empathy, and ethical clarity appear increasingly fragile, she believes education must reclaim its original purpose: building character.
“The deeper purpose of education is not merely to prepare a child for livelihood, but to prepare the individual for life,” Berlia says.
And in a rapidly changing world, that purpose may matter more than ever before.
When information becomes noise
Today’s students are growing up in an environment flooded with information. Social media, AI-generated content, digital platforms, and virtual ecosystems constantly shape how young people think, react, and engage with the world around them.
But while access to knowledge has become effortless, the ability to distinguish truth from distortion has become increasingly difficult.
“The challenge today is no longer access to information, but the ability to distinguish truth from distortion,” Berlia explains.
She believes excessive immersion in virtual environments is also weakening real human interactions—distancing young people from empathy, emotional understanding, and grounded human connection.
And that is precisely why value education has become more urgent in the AI era.
Because the future will not only require intelligence. It will require discernment, emotional resilience, compassion, and integrity.
The missing piece in modern education
For decades, schools and universities have largely measured success through grades, placements, rankings, and visible achievement. Parents increasingly evaluate institutions through infrastructure, technology integration, and academic outcomes.
Character development often becomes secondary.
But Berlia believes this imbalance is creating a deeper crisis within education systems globally.
“There is a growing feeling among some parents that good character may somehow be a liability to success,” she observes. “This is a fallacy.”
The future, she argues, will belong not merely to individuals who are knowledgeable, but to those who can combine intelligence with empathy, ambition with ethics, and achievement with responsibility.
Compassion, humility, gratitude, resilience, and self-discipline are not abstract ideals, she insists. They are foundational human qualities that shape how knowledge is ultimately used.
And as artificial intelligence automates more cognitive work, these deeply human capabilities may become even more valuable.
Why character cannot be ‘taught’
One of the strongest themes underpinning Berlia’s philosophy is the belief that values cannot simply be inserted into education through standalone lessons or textbook chapters.
“Character cannot be taught; it has to be caught,” she says.
Children absorb values through observation, behaviour, relationships, and environment. They learn integrity when they see it practised consistently. They develop empathy when they experience compassion themselves.
This places enormous responsibility not only on schools, but also on parents, educators, and institutions.
Unless teachers and school leaders embody the values they seek to nurture, value education risks becoming symbolic rather than transformative.
For Berlia, value education cannot remain peripheral to learning. It must become part of the ecosystem itself.
Rebuilding education around human values
At Apeejay Education, value education is integrated into the larger philosophy of learning rather than treated as an additional activity.
Learning outcomes consciously include values alongside knowledge, creativity, and skills. Classroom discussions, assemblies, mindfulness practices, yoga, creative arts, outreach programmes, and environmental initiatives all become vehicles for human development.
The institution also places emphasis on emotional well-being and reflective learning—encouraging students to better understand themselves and connect more meaningfully with others.
Importantly, values are recognised visibly.
Awards honouring kindness, integrity, and human values reinforce the message that character matters just as much as achievement.
“If we celebrate only marks,” Berlia notes, “we should not be surprised when that is the only outcome we receive.”
Education beyond the intellect
A key aspect of Apeejay’s philosophy is its collaboration with Ramakrishna Mission and inspiration drawn from the teachings of Swami Vivekananda.
Programmes such as Global Awakening Citizen Classes, Vivekananda Study Circles, mindfulness sessions, meditation, and yoga are designed to encourage self-awareness, reflection, and conscious living.
The goal, Berlia explains, is not to preach values, but to help students internalise them through lived understanding.
At a time when young people are navigating increasing mental and emotional pressures, this inward dimension of education is becoming increasingly important.
Because education, she believes, must shape the whole human being—not merely the intellect.
Why the world needs responsible global citizens
The urgency of value education becomes even more relevant in the context of today’s global challenges. Climate change, inequality, conflict, social division, and declining trust cannot be addressed through technical expertise alone.
The world requires citizens capable of empathy, stewardship, ethical leadership, and collective responsibility.
A responsible global citizen, according to Berlia, is someone who understands their relationship not only with personal ambition, but also with society, humanity, and future generations.
Students therefore need to learn not only how to compete—but also how to coexist.
Not only how to succeed—but also how to contribute.
Not only how to lead—but also how to care.
And perhaps that is the larger message emerging from this conversation: as education systems prepare students for the future of work, they must not lose sight of the future of humanity itself.
