Someone rightly said that the goal of education is the advancement of knowledge. But when we look at our society, the norms of acquiring education have been malformed. People are in a great rush to educate themselves by attaining multiple degrees but it saddens me to put in words that the real objective of getting education holds no importance to them.

What we need to understand is that education is not just about going to school and getting a degree. It is about expanding our knowledge by learning new things each day and coming out of our comfort zone. Students nowadays prefer to confine themselves to the textbooks assigned to them or PowerPoint slides by cramming each and every word written regardless of what those words actually convey. For them the ambition is not to obtain knowledge but to secure high grades or 4 GPA. To copy and paste someone else’ work is in the best of their interest but to research the information for the acquisition of knowledge is too arduous of a work for them to do. They would rather like to waste their time by scrolling through their feed on social media, in watching movies or in playing games but won’t pay any heed to actually learning something.

In today’s world, the concept of reading a newspaper or book reading is diminishing. Students have gotten used to the incarceration of their comforts that they are not willing to escape it by making endeavors to actually use their own minds in generating new ideas and to take out some time to really read a book out of their syllabus or even a newspaper to gain that extra knowledge which doesn’t harm anyone. I wish to see people developing a passion for book reading and putting efforts to make research for the enhancement of their knowledge. As knowledge never goes in vain, it builds our personality and it is beneficial in shaping our future. If we shut our brains and do not put them in proper use to conceive or brainstorm as well as keep neglecting to improve our knowledge, then I am afraid our minds would lack creativity and eventually rust away.

“Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives” (James Madison)

MAHAM EJAZ,

Lahore, October 2.