Education for All
By Dr Ghulam M. Haniff
St. Cloud, Minnesota
Sixty-six years after its independence Pakistan’s insatiable desire for education remains unfulfilled. That was the clear message communicated to us by Malala Yusufzai whose bold action to speak up for greater educational opportunities took her to the edge of death. Unfortunately, the disdainful leaders have remained deaf to the desires of the people.
Pakistan’s rate of literacy remains at 58 percent while its colleagues in South Asia have shot up to 71 percent for India and 65 percent for Bangladesh. At the time of partition, both India and Pakistan had literacy rates of 12 percent each. While India zoomed ahead Pakistan continued to drag its feet under a motley collection of inept leaders.
Nothing could uplift the condition of the people in Pakistan than through thorough immersion into the educational process. When she was shot at by the Taliban all Malala was doing was to give hope to the educational aspiration of the people. Contrary to the Qur’anic injunctions the religious extremists don’t want the females to be educated. Pakistan has been, and continues to be, one of the more patriarchal countries in the world although it is more liberated than many Muslim nations.
Nowhere does it say in the Qur’an that females ought to be kept illiterate and away from schools. In fact, according to Hadith, education is the bounden duty of every Muslim male and female.
It was very surprising when the current week’s Time Magazine carried the picture of Malala on its cover. She was second to be listed of the five individuals photographed. President Obama was naturally in the first place followed by Malala in the second.
She was the second Pakistani to grace the cover of the newsmagazine since Pakistan came into existence. This is quite an honor for a fifteen-year-old to be put on cover of the most famous publication in the world.
She was also one of the two Muslims to appear on the cover out of the five people photographed for that honor. The other person to appear was Mohamed Morsi, the President of Egypt. It is unusual for the Muslims to be so honored in an international publication.
Islam probably is making an inroad into the world community although it is very hard to judge by reading and listening to the American national mass media. It seems that Yusufzai was chosen as a peaceful advocate of education and Morsi as a peaceful instigator of democratic change. These are the two values desired by the citizens of the world except a handful of fanatics.
Yes, fanatical nuts are found in America too, recently busy at burning mosques or the Qur’an mostly in the South. Terry Jones comes to mind as the prime example.
In a recent survey Pakistan came in at 113th in literacy rate out of the 130 nations surveyed. Pakistan’s literacy rate is shocking low for a country that possesses nuclear bombs. Out of 37 million school-going age only 26 million are enrolled in schools at the three levels.
Among the many problems that plague the Muslim world one of the most pernicious is the suppression of women. Women are quite capable of learning and qualifying for any position at the top. Benazir Bhutto proved that beyond a reasonable doubt by being elected as the Prime Minister twice.
Similarly, Muslim women too can qualify for any position they want. That is the hope that Malala was expressing.
Unfortunately, its leaders and mullahs are the ones keeping women back. When Pervez Musharraf was the leader of the nation he opened up many doors for women. Other leaders can follow the same path for the good of the nation.
At this stage of the game why not educate everybody. The country of the present and of the future needs them all in the workforce. It cannot dangle along poverty stricken forever.
Indeed, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan declared: “The future will depend on the type of education and way we bring up our children.” His visionary pronouncement remains pivotal for the success of the nation to this very day.
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