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Education makes a people easy to lead, but difficult to drive, easy to govern, but impossible to enslave

Education provides enlightenment

Outline:
1)      Introduction
2)      Citizenship
i)                    Law abiding
ii)                   Discipline
iii)                 Payment of taxes
iv)                 Keep the environment intact
v)                  Educate coming generations
3)      Cannot be driven into something
i)                    Conscious
ii)                   Elect better representatives
iii)                 Avoid bloodshed and extreme narratives
iv)                 Illiterate people of Third world countries especially Africans are experiencing bloodshed
4)      Counter-example of America attacking Iraq and some high-educated Jihadi elements
i)                    Role of establishment’s vested interests
ii)                   Media
iii)                 Brainwashed by some misguided clerics
iv)                 Dreams of a utopian land
5)      Conclusion
Education is the primary responsibility of the state and the fundamental right of a citizen. It is a tool through which minds of common people are enlightened to make a differentiation between good and bad practices whether these practices are related to one’s individual life or the life of the state as a whole. Education stimulates the thought process that makes a mind averse to extreme narratives and violent attitudes. Countries with high literacy ratios are more developed and peaceful than those than having low literacy ratios. This is evident if we compare developed countries like the United Kingdom and Germany with least-developed countries like Somalia and Sudan.

The very reason of this is the sense of citizenship that education inculcates in the mind of a person. He starts considering himself as an important and responsible person of the society and thus abides all the just laws that state applies to him. Such a citizen helps other people in the times of need and plays his role well according to the interests of the nation and not according to his individual interests.

His discipline, punctuality, and keenness in discharging his responsibilities prove to be a role model for others to follow. An educated citizen pays his taxes and keeps the environment because he knows that the very existence of the state is dependent on these things. The major advantage of an educated society is that the educated parents and especially mothers give rise to an educated generation, which proves to be the future flag-barrier of the country. As Napoleon Bonaparte said,” Give me educated mothers and I shall give you educated nation”.

Thus educated mothers to play an important role in the healthy upbringing of the children. When the responsibilities of the state are handed over to the educated generations they prove to be the catalyst for the increased economic growth and high standard of life. Educated societies also elect their representatives by going through an intensive thought process compared to the ignorant that vote based on hollow slogans.

Though educated societies are easy to mold according to the law of the state and requirement of the time but are difficult to induce into mere sloganeering. They elect public representatives through a democratic process but do not give them clean-chit even after coming into powers. Educated societies keep a proper check on the governments through media and public forums. The uneducated people are easy to become a prey of the extremist ideologies and religious fanaticism. The bloodshed in the African and some Asian countries can truly be attributed to the illiteracy along with other reasons.

Even in Pakistan, people of areas where the literacy rate is low are more inclined to extremes than those areas where the literacy rate is high. This is evident in the high number of terrorist activities in the North-Western and FATA region of Pakistan; these areas are quite backward in terms of education and development. On the other hand, the educated countries of the west are much more peaceful and developed. The huge contrast that is visible between terrorism hit and highly peaceful regions is the nothing other than literacy ratio.

Though one may argue that violence and extremism are solely the results of illiteracy and backwardness but that is not enough of the argument. America, which is a developed country with a high literacy ratio, attacked Iraq on the pretext of presence of so-called weapons of mass destruction inside Iraq, which proved to be bluff in itself. The main question is that how American public put their weight behind these attacks or how the American government convinced the public about the productivity of the attacks. The answer is in the media perception that west builds against an opposing country. The media only take up the narrative feed by the establishment to them just for financial benefits and thus convince the people by different arguments that the threat is more than they can think. Same thing happened with Iraq, which was shown as a devil in front of the American public for some time and was convinced that attack is the necessity. Though the attacks were materialized yet huge millions of protestors rattled the capitals of America and western countries and ultimately western countries had to withdraw due to mounting public pressure.

Another highly controversial example is that of Jihadi elements carrying out on the innocent public. Most of their leaders use to be educated from high prestige universities but with no brain to use. The reason is the Jihadi ideology that is toasted into their brains by one name or another. Most of the low-rank followers are from those areas which are being bombarded by the NATO or are subdued by the major powers under their military might.

The examples, counter-examples and the world narratives show the youth must be educated in a true sense by invigorating a thought process in their mind instead of feeding crammed up materials. The crammed up material can only produce bread earners and money spenders but not responsible citizens. The dismal chart of literacy ratio and the lack of mind building institutions and teachers is a plague to the coming generations but still, we need not lose heart. Education with a sense of humanity and sincerity to the nation can bring wonders for us but for that, we need an overhauling of our education system.



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