Need for moral education: Act before it is too late...!

With the entire hullabaloo about the question paper leak, serious issues have come to the fore. The whole issue has highlighted that our justice system works when a crime ends up at its door step. The problem was going on for years. Many dumb students have already proceeded to mainland for their higher studies with marks scored bending all rules and throwing all morals and ethics to the air. Whither justice? How can the system compensate all those diligent and sincere students who have spent sleepless nights preparing for the examinations? Just imagine about those students who for no sin of theirs have to reappear for the exams. The students who have been beneficiaries of the leakage might be cursing their parents now. But, they too were partners in crime. What kind of education are we giving our young ones? Do we ever wonder what kind of doctors and engineers are we producing? Will they be able to escape the rotten memories, which will stalk them throughout their lives? How can they perform their duties with a wronged conscience?

When a principal leaks the papers, he has already denigrated the whole education system. The names that are doing the rounds too raise serious concerns. Those affected by the scam are demanding high level enquiry. They are not satisfied with the arrest of the conspirators. Justice will be seen to have been done only when all the beneficiaries are booked. Justice demands that. Accountability is another casualty of the scam. No one is accountable until and unless caught and brought before the justice system. How can we entrust the future of our children in the hands of these custodians of education?

Such episodes remind us time and again that the moral fabric of the society has been torn apart. If we still harbor the wishful thought that only physics and chemistry is enough for building a civilized society, we are absolutely wrong.

There is a huge divide in our education system. Secular and religious educations are two ends of the spectrum. The secular lifestyle we have embraced for ourselves have already sidelined moral and ethical education as part of religious teachings, which has only secondary role in our lives. We get our secular education from schools headed by such principals and moral education from some TV channels like Aastha, Zee Salam and God TV and we switch our morals with the same frequency as we change channels. Earlier, a day of a child started with prayers, and now we can see huge queues in front of tuition centres in the wee hours. Parents pull them from the bed and do all the chores and dump them at different places for tuitions – a part of preparing them for the competition. In the long run, the same children dump their parents in old age homes, as they will be busy in the pursuit of material gains.

Parents amass wealth by hook and crook and everyone except the income tax department knows the sources very well. The ill-gotten wealth is then exhausted on the “education” of the children through ways that we have just witnessed now.

It’s time we straighten out our priorities. With a compulsion to score a little over 200 out of 200, precious time cannot be wasted on stories and their morals. And then there are these secular individuals who see danger in everything religious.  It’s a vicious circle and someone should put a cross-piece in the wheel before it is late. Justice and accountability needs to find a place in our scheme of things.

Zubair Ahmed in his blog. More Here.