The truth, instead

“After God has carried us safe to New England and we built our houses, provided necessities for our livelihood, reared convenient places for God’s worship and settled the Civil Government. One of the next things we longed for and looked after was to advance learning and perpetuate it to posterity. Dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the Churches when our present ministries shall lie in the dust.”

This is what a tablet outside Harvard University read when I was visiting its campus the other day. Safe to say, they got it right. The last thing rulers of a nation would want is to leave its citizens behind as illiterate and without a place where they could learn and prosper intellectually.

While the Massachusetts General Court founded Harvard University in the early 1600 and advanced learning amongst its people, founded the Harvard Divinity School, Harvard Law School and Harvard School for Medicine, around the same time, The Mughal Empire was thriving too.

However, it was thriving in territorial ways. Although those who came before him were indiscriminate when it came to education, Aurangzeb altered his policies. He ordered destruction of Hindu schools and temples and forced religious education with fanaticism. His educational policies focused upon educating Muslims through Madarsas and vocational education (Karkhanas). Don’t get me wrong, the Mughals were patrons of literature. They left behind great architecture for us to marvel and were fond of poetry too. They were usually found within the company of scholars and poets but unfortunately, they were too fixated on their own power.

With great power comes great responsibility and foundations of not even one notable University were laid down during the Mughal reign. That just further proves the level of importance attributed to education.

The point of history is to learn from it. While others were building universities and encouraging learning, our rulers were busy building the Taj Mahal. Priorities. But have we learned anything from history? Or have we even remotely tried?

As of today, there aren’t many world-class learning institutions either existent or planning to be built in Pakistan. Rather, emphasis is placed on giving free laptops to the youth.

Nations thrive on research-based policies. And research is carried out by scholars and students at colleges and universities. Those colleges and universities which are headed by educated and accredited professors. Resources of the state are indiscriminately poured into these institutions because they are considered to be a long-term investment for the state. Why wouldn’t ministries require individuals who can, based on evidence, advise the country on how to improve economically?

Yes, religious education is just as important and should be offered in schools. However, it should not be forced upon gullible minds by the not so gullible radicals. What I am proposing here is a careful preservation of religious values, principles and morals while placing emphasis on the need for educational excellence. We need big universities, big campuses, quality resources, free libraries and top of the line professors to inculcate the love of learning and teaching within our TikTok struck youth. The same youth which gets access to wifi quicker than it learns how to read a book.

Times are changing fast; AI is taking over many aspects of work and here we are teaching our students what a floppy disk is. If the masses cannot get access to free quality education, good infrastructure and a system which facilitates learning, we can make no advancements.

Even if we commence building schools, colleges and universities which don’t turn into ghost schools later, we might witness a change soon.

We need to organise our country from the basics and the basics include education, health and infrastructure. We need to get rid of illiterate rulers and put in place well-educated and informed people who prioritise things such as learning. Until then, we’ll continue to be stuck in a vicious cycle of incompetence and corruption.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 20^th, 2023.

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