No child is born a thief. But it is a hard pill to swallow that bad parenting leads a child to steal, rob, and God knows what.
Tell a child not to lie a thousand times, but lie once before him to get out of trouble and he would learn that lying can help avoid troubles. How can a child stick to truthfulness, if he had no example to follow?
You get your kid in a school and expect him or her to perform better than the rest of the children of their age. But, how can a five-year-old perform better than his peers? Why are five-year olds expected to act better than other five-year olds? Is this not unfair? The child tries to live up to the pre-set expectations. He does not want to look bad in his teachers’ or parents’ eyes. He knows that value and love come only from meeting expectations. If you do not meet expectations, you will not get value or love. Alas, this seed of thought is also sown by parents and teachers.
Look at the cruelty, out of tens of millions of abilities, the measure of a child’s ability is only the ability to memorize. If a child is weak in that, he is labelled as useless. And this branding of the kid as a dunce is done by none other than his own parents and teachers.
No child wants to suffer. So, he seeks escape. On the exams’ day, the teacher is afraid that if this kid does not pass, he will lose his job. The principal is afraid that if the kid fails, the school would lose his admission and fee. The parents are afraid to get their family name tainted if the kid does not prove to be a super genius. No one cares about the child.
It is fear and pain that connects human beings. So, parents, teachers, and principals make an unspoken agreement. Unbeknownst to the child, the teacher makes him memorize the test questions in advance. The principal is silent and the parents are happy.
The whole charade of exams becomes a buffoonery as all answers are available to copy for the kids, and this process involves parental consent and premier supervision. The child passes. Everybody plays weddings without a hitch. Nobody cares about the child, again.
The child learns, there is nothing wrong with cheating when you are caught up in hairs. Even the most deserving students consider the opportunity to cheat in the board exams as their right. When an opportunity of such sorts presents itself, everyone beats the happy beats.
There is probably not even a single college in Pakistan that does not pay bribes for practical marks. Children are regularly told that college would have their practical marks posted, and the college which succeeds in getting the maximum marks by paying more bribes during the examinations is considered to be the best college. The examination has become a race of marks instead of measuring one’s current qualifications.
For God’s sake, we are sending beasts in the form of educated people in the society. The beasts, whenever they face defeat, they cheat. No one is born a thief or a robber, parents and teachers gradually train and guide him how to steal, how to rob, and, God forbid, how to kill.
Who are we to cry about corruption? How dare we abuse Pakistan of being a corrupt country? When educational institutions in the society are selling theft and robbery training in the name of education, then who will teach the lessons of truthfulness, honesty and courage in the society?
Is there anyone who gets a chance to cheat and does not cheat? If there is a rich person in the family, and everyone knows very well that he earns haram, sells goods by lying, is earning wealth by deceiving the government, he is upheld as the wisest and is considered a hero.
If there is a poor person in the family, who rejects false means of livelihood and prefers starvation to haram, stories of his foolishness are told, and mockery is made out of his persona. No child learns to steal from the womb. We make him a thief.
Exams have been cancelled. And not a single student is upset. Congratulations everywhere. Cheers of joy everywhere. The millions of children who are being promoted this year, ten years later, when they come into practical life and become doctors, engineers, or something else, no one knows what flowers they will feed.
As a teacher, my heart is very troubled. Only cheers are being heard. And this time people are cheering not only over a national, but also an international tragedy. The slogans of Corona Zindabad have appeared, social conscientiousness has died.
What greater torment will befall a nation than the fact that destruction is breaking through the door and entering, and the youth are not even aware of the extent of that destruction.
Nations are always destroyed only after such circumstances. But it is not the children’s fault, because, no child is born a thief, or a robber. We make him a thief and a robber.
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