Moral development is a concern since the beginning of the civilisation. It is an important part of the socialization process. The term refers to the way people learn what society considered to be good and bad, which is important for a smoothly functioning society. Due to increase in crime and violence, there is resurgence in need of value education at all levels of education, be it school or higher education. However, for developing effective value education programmes, we need to understand how moral development take place. Notions of moral development have evolved over the centuries. There are various approaches and theories, both traditional and contemporary, which explain moral development. In this article, different philosophical underpinnings about moral development, some of which are virtue ethics of Aristotle, empiricist's position on moral education, ontological and the rationalist ethics of Kant, Dewey ethics, philosophical tradition based on developing relationships of mutual respect, Kohlberg and Piaget moral development theories are discussed. In the next part of this paper, it is discussed that how the value education programmes can be developed based on the understandings of these moral development theories.

Keywords: Moral Development, Moral Education, Value Education, Moral Development Theories, Value Education Programmes.