by Peermuhammad Ameerali

Created on: December 07, 2009

Take away education from a culture and see what else remains. Nothing but sheer dross will stare at us. Sooner than later such a culture is sure to crumble into dust. This is the stern lesson we have learnt from the past history of various cultures. So a culture, if it wants to swim upstream against the onslaught of vagaries of time, it has to pay special attention to the education of its younger members, particularly the children. These few factors are indicative enough to highlight how much any culture values the education of its children.

1. Society's attitude towards education: The most advanced cultures of the past have accorded the highest priority to education. Right from the monarchs to the common man on the street, everyone was expected to learn the essentials of his trade to justify his position in the society. So every trade had its own rich treasures of traditions and resources. Properly trained teachers led the march and the society accorded them due place and recognition. Whichever society ignored this kind of recognition and respect to education had to bite dust. The classical examples are the Egyptian, Greek and Roman cultures, which reigned supreme at one point of time in the distant past, subsequently lost their pristine glory mainly because they either killed or insulted their greatest thinkers and philosophers, like Socrates, Diogenes or Galileo, and refused to listen to their teachings and heed their warning. On the other hand, the Indian and Chinese cultures where their teachers, called 'Gurus' were always treated on high pedestals, almost on par with their rulers, survive in their full bloom, century after century, still retaining their original vitality and vigor. There is a lesson as well as a warning from these cultures to the entire world to cherish their old traditions and customs which were handed down to generation after generation couched in the preservative called proper education.

2. Government's priority for education: In these days of rat race competition and rapid-fire achievements, the cultures which have stolen the limelight are easily those who have fared economically well. The so-called developed countries boast their achievements to the world only on the economic front and they don't care much for traditional values. Naturally when the developing countries want to follow the examples of their fortunate brethren, they are forced to analyze what contributed to the latter's impressive growth and they could zero in

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