BaKhabar, November 2010, Page-4

better light a candle than curse the darkness

Education holds sway over everything

... Dr. Syed Khalid Iqbal Haider*

Education is mainly constituted of consciousness, perseverance and enlightenment. Minus the first two attributes, education is just an empty can sounding high and keeping little. The third attribute is the ultimate of education—mostly the area of scholars, scientists and seers. Ignorance is a curse while unawareness is mental idleness. When sloth of ignorance blends with mental idleness, the person ceases to be rational, left only with a heap of emotion in his being - a futile object - good for nothing, a prattle, a mountebank. Again, education is not just to read or to have information, but to be reflective, to be in a position to weigh and consider. Education which doesn’t drive home truth and reality is faulty education. Education which doesn’t provide with a sense to assess the situation, and doesn’t impart wisdom to act accordingly, is also no better than cramming. One needs to be conscious, visionary, ambitious, and have the ability to bounce back from failure.

The tendency of living in the past doesn’t correspond to the purpose in education. The tendency of living in the past also manifests lack of motivation. Conscious and aware first we need to be- conscious of the surrounding and aware of the impending future. Consciousness begets motivation. Any type of education to be given or imparted needs to be preceded by a vision. Disillusionment will then not come across. Crisis of vision curbs motivation.
I’m immensely pleased that Bihar Anjuman is also striving for the cause of education, specifically education for the poor, drown-trodden children whose parents are either uneducated or are unable to afford education. Anjuman has founded coaching centers, held competitions and given away prizes and scholarships to the excelling children. Great job indeed..! Anything which is done with a noble impulse must be encouraged and helped for its sustenance. Praising only the effort and wishing the mission to attain its goal is not enough. Being an educator, I would prefer to suggest to the office bearers to put rather an effort for finding out means to make the children aware of the alpha and omega of the world, the tilt of the time, to be aware of their responsibilities as world citizens, and simultaneously to be assertive towards their rights. It is neither so that the whole world is their enemies nor would it afford to appreciate their way of life.
A pragmatic approach to life and the world needs to be inculcated from the beginning. A child must be taught from the beginning that a good value to learn is difficult, and to remain adhered to it is even more difficult, and hence it must not be allowed to go easily. Knowledge of technology is very essential. Another major drawback of traditional education system is that children are not taught anything about the importance of money while in practical life, nothing is as important as money. I don’t know as to why commercial concern and its utility and importance have been put aside from school curriculum. Though in universities Business Studies is now taught, it gets too late to understand its importance implicitly. Academics are the most important component of education but it doesn’t mean that it is all.

It is a general opinion about the Muslims that they are intolerant and violent. If correctly described, Muslims may be maximum reactionary, not intolerant because they have got a teaching of watawasau bil haque, watawasau bis-sabr (For striding upon the path of truth, tolerance is needed, Quran 103:03). When they find the surrounding in conflict with what

has been taught to them, they tend to be desperate and out of desperation, they berserk to be reactionary. If honestly evaluated, reaction is a natural outburst of righteousness, it spills out credulousness- a blunt response, though -you had a mindset for something positive but the outcome was adverse. You lost patience, got unbridled of control over you and tended to be reactionary. And if the world calls it violence, this is unfair. Tolerance is of course a great quality; it consists of bravery, patience and rationality while intolerance consists of impatience, weakness and irrationality. I do admit that the Muslims in general are most of the time spurred by emotion in making judgment and lack behind reasoning; emotional judgment may be harmful but can never be an evil. Their hope and expectation got shattered and they turned out to be desperately reactionary. What is, therefore, first and foremost required is to find out means to provide a training through which there could be a balance between reason and emotion developed in the new generation. Teaching plays a big role.
Knowledge alone is information. Until information is processed, knowledge is of little use. How the mind would learn to sort out instincts, opinions, evaluations, possibilities and alternatives decides the degree of our success. One of the reasons of the Muslims not being at par with others is their lopsided thought process or faulty educational system. The task Bihar Anjuman has taken up is philanthropic. Indeed a great task is embedded with a great responsibility. Muslim youth in India need guidance. As the condition in Bihar is more pathetic due to utter poverty, youth in Bihar need more guidance. And the best guidance is to train the brain for effectiveness sand efficiency. In the wake of Babri Masjid verdict, they have, like all others in India, perhaps for the first time, displayed pragmatism. They didn’t turn up violent nor took the law in their hands and voiced for the legal path to the Supreme Court.
* The author is a professor and head of the department of English in Preston University, Ajman, UAE. He can be reached at drhaider_222@yahoo.co.in