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Values education has become a necessary tool in response to the rise in moral deterioration in an average South African society today. The school is viewed as one of the key players in nurturing children into adulthood. The teaching of values that can give the growing generation, necessary moral development is one of the responsibilities of the schools. Hence, this study aims at exploring teachers' experiences on how they integrate values education into South African learners in various high schools. This qualitative study engaged five schools in its case study, where five teachers from each of the schools were purposively selected for semi-structured focus group interviews, to share their experiences on the integration of moral values in schools. Moral development theory was used to underpin the study. Findings from the inductive thematic analysis from the participants from both rural and urban schools indicated a misunderstanding of the concept of values education by some teachers, which affects its effective integration. The study established that role modelling of learners by teachers and parents are inevitable to save the society from moral decadence, while some participants indicted overpopulation, single parenthood, social media as some of the challenges to the integration of value education in schools. The study, therefore, recommends capacitation of teachers through various professional development programmes, to integrate values education and adequate parental support as some of the strategies to promote effective integration of values education in schools.

Value education is seen as one of the necessary tools for addressing moral deterioration in the South African society of today. The school is viewed as one of the key change agents in nurturing children into adulthood, where teaching of values can give the growing generation the needed moral development. The aim of this study is to explore teachers' experiences on the integration of values education into learners in South African high schools. Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Development was used as a lens to understand the integration of values education in a semi-structured focus group interview with five purposively selected teachers from each school. A total of 25 teachers from five public schools in King Cethswayo district in KwaZulu-Natal province participated. The collected data was thematically analysed and themes were interpretively discussed. The findings revealed that teachers' perception of values education affect its integration in schools. The role modelling of the learners by both teachers and parents is central to saving the society from moral decadence. However, limitations such as over crowded classes, single parenthood, and social media affect the effective integration of values education in schools. The study therefore, recommends mutual cooperation between the school and parents, the Department of Basic Education should provide adequate professional development training for teachers on the integration of values education, and schools should be provided with counselling psychologists to correct learners' misbehaviours and promote effective integration of values education in schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]