KARACHI: The occasion was the 30th anniversary of Citizen’s Education Development Foundation (CEDF) and the highlight of it was a panel discussion on ‘Taaleem aur roshan khayali’ (education and an enlightened approach to life) at the Alliance Francaise on Saturday evening.

Moderated by journalist Ghazi Salahuddin, those who took part in the discussion included poet Zehra Nigah, educationist Baela Raza, journalist Zubeida Mustafa, Liaquat (a teacher) and Shakeel (a student).

The first question that Mr Salahuddin put to the panelists was about an enlightened approach to life. Ms Nigah said to speak on the subject was both easy and difficult. She said people had been complaining about the quality of education for a long time, but there were individuals who tried to rectify the problem and eventually became the backbone of society. In that context she narrated the tale of a Hindu mythological god, Inder, who, after getting miffed with a small town (basti), deprived it of rain. It took no time for the town to get desolate. One day he forgot what he had done to the town and visited it. There he saw a little thrush filling a drop of water from a puddle in its beak and flying into a destroyed, dried-up field to water it. The god made fun of the bird saying it was a fool to think that a drop of water could make the field fertile again. The thrush replied it only knew that this much it could do, and therefore must do.

Ms Raza said we needed to see whether the issue of education was the failure of the state or society’s. She said the intent of the state was not bad, but it just couldn’t deliver. She said Sindh had the poorest indicators, and yet there were so many enlightened people in the province. She said the people and organisations working on the subject needed to ‘scale up’. She said bearing in mind technological developments we needed to have a new kind of education.

At that point Mr Salahuddin interjected and stressed the significance of human dignity. He said all men were created equal, so we should accept everybody with dignity.

Ms Mustafa said the discussion that was taking place was related to the issue of language. She said for a child to have roshan khayali, it was important that his teacher or facilitator should enable the child to read for himself. More than that, she said, the teacher should be able to inculcate in the child the spirit (jazba) to read. She said very few teachers today had that ability. She urged that if children were taught in their mother tongue, it would help them to learn things in a better way. She said learning in mother tongue also enabled the young ones to develop critical thinking.

The second question that Mr Salahuddin put to the panelists was on the problem of intolerance and extremism. Ms Nigah told him that her sister’s grandson liked airplanes and was told at home that it was the Wright Brothers who invented airplane, but his schoolteacher told him that it was invented by Muslims. And when the teacher was asked why she said that she replied children should be taught that whoever they thought were their heroes should be Muslims.

Liaquat, a teacher associated with the CEDF, said he had students from different religious backgrounds and he treated them equally.

Shakeel, a student, thanked Mr Liaquat for encouraging him to move ahead with his studies and he was able to pass his matriculation without going to school. On the importance of education for girls he said: “We cannot progress unless we educate and respect girls.”

After the discussion a group of children sang a tarana penned by Ms Nigah. Ms Nigah was so inspired by their performance that, afterwards, she herself sang a couple of its lines. Renowned singer Tina Sani also appeared on stage for a brief period, and helped the children sing.

Naseem Salahuddin thanked the guests for coming. Earlier, Rehana Alam informed the audience on how the CEDF came about. She said it all started with a woman seeing a child working alongside his mother (maid) and she thought that he should be in school. On the work that CEDF undertook, she said it set up informal (home) schools, mobile schools and had sponsorship programmes in which the students who wanted to carry on with their education were helped to get admission to government schools. She said so far more than 12,000 had achieved literacy through the CEDF.

Published in Dawn, November 27th, 2016