The losing battle of education

It has been many years since my father had expressed his optimism. There has seen strong social movements since then, concerted efforts on national and international fronts to underscore the benefits of universal education. The number of programmes and institutions have increased. The literacy rate has gone up and more girls are going to school. This is not just true for Bangladesh. This is more or less the global scene.

The good news is that the future of education looks more manageable than its past. The World Bank President Jim Wolfensohn has recently assessed that it would take $3.6 billion in additional aid flows each year, for the next 7/8 years, to ensure that all children complete primary school. He also said that the cost of per class of 40 children would come to $1200 including teacher, books, and classroom. Fine. At least we know the size of the problem. It is up to us how we go about the solution. We can ask for more guns and bombs -- or better future for our children.

Tap here to add The Daily Star as a trusted source

But the question is whether education is still the beacon of hope. Education today is more cosmetic than convincing. People like to wear it like a badge or a title, something they need in order to find work, for social status, marriage-fixing, business card, and other uses. Education is all about brand names, foreign or local, US or UK, public or private. Education is an end unto itself, not a means to attain any higher goals.

There was a time when education used to have higher goals, one of which was to overcome poverty. People without any means or family name, could count on education to get out of rural life, to get recognition for their talents, to marry into higher class, to get a fair chance at life and all its opportunities. But the underlying goal of education was ennoblement. It was believed that education had the power to change, that it could take anyone from any background and turn him into a respectable person. My father was a product of that ennoblement, the posthumous son of a farmer, a dark-skinned rustic who sold incense sticks and candles in the village market to put himself through school, to become first in his family to go to college, get a job and rub shoulders with the enlightened folks.

So, the ultimate goal of education was value addition. It was about making man something more than he was inside the skin. There was something magical about education, something which transformed the flesh, blood and bones and harmonised mind with body to make a more sophisticated animal. It was demand for this animal which created jobs, which created skills.

The biggest dilemma of education today is whether it develops the personality or the skills of a person. Does it prepare him for the tussles of life or the tasks at work? Perhaps education is no longer a big draw for those who want to make money, because there are quicker alternatives. Given the material hunger in our life, money can compensate for most of our needs, including finesse and manners, which were once the territory of learning.

My father used to say that there was no knowledge without college. He was obsessed with his obsession that one must learn before one could earn, that reading and writing were necessary for the cultivation of conscientious man, who could see the black and the white, thus learning how to cope with the gray. My father was convinced that enrollment in school was a sure and definite road to ennoblement.

That transaction is no longer valid, which means people do not have reasons to believe that education is necessary, that it can uplift a person in his soul and goal, that it is the best way to succeed in life, the most honourable means in the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness. One study conducted at the World Bank considered the effect of halving the distance to school for children in 21 countries. In rural Chad, it showed a boost in enrollment by less than 5 percent. In other 20 countries, it was determined that the effect would be even smaller.

It is a sign of erosion in the goodwill of education, which is failing to attract students. Education is no longer tempting because it is no longer linked with success, although the meritorious children of disadvantaged families are still going to school and crashing over poverty every now and then. But that crashing over is not happening on a large scale, on a scale that was supposed to become rule not exception.

In that respect, education has gone the way of religion as increasing rituals intensified the crisis of faith. We have more campuses and more curricula, yet education is losing its bite. Neither education nor the educated is as respectable as the old days, when my father used to peddle goods in the village market. He found it endearing to the entire village because he was doing it to pay for his education.

Education is now comparable to the Wizard of Oz bereft of his wonder machine. It is still there, churning and turning, making the right noise, spitting out graduates of one sort or another, putting the labels on them, but somehow missing the right mark of education. Education is just a fact of life like crime, politics, hustle and bustle of income and spending. But life is not a fact of education, which would have been the ideal case. That was supposed to be the magic of education, giving anybody who worked hard the wonder touch of a lapidary where uncut diamonds are cut and polished to become precious and promising.

What is religion if it does not cleanse your soul? Likewise, what is education if it does not cultivate your soul? Education is more than going to class everyday, more than homework, more than grades, more than learning how to read, write, or spell. Education is more than merit, which is the inherent quality of a person to achieve excellence. Man excelled even when there was not learning, when there was no school to teach him what was best.

Education arose out of the same reason a successful experiment becomes a commercial exploit. The school system is nothing but affirmation of an optimism that what is good for one can be replicated for many. That is why the key word for education is learning. It is an institutional approach towards taking the best of few and spreading it amongst many.

My father believed that it was possible and he lived for it. As a young man, he earned money to spend on education and encouraged others to do the same. But things have changed since then. People now go to school so that they can earn money. No wonder a lot of people are cutting out the middle man. They are avoiding education and heading straight for the money. My father was a dreamer and he did not know it.

Mohammad Badrul Ahsan is a banker.