We have been raised in an environment where we are made to believe that education is essential and the path to a successful life. We have heard Urdu sentences like “Parhoge likhoge banoge nawab, kheloge kudo ge banoge kharab”, “Parho takay baray aadmi ban sako” with regards to study all our lives and children often think of it as boring as it may seem education is indeed important. Children and adults alike believe that education is so important to the point that nothing else is supposed to come in between and in some cases not even your own life.

While many people might be of the view that education does indeed come first above everything else and every other aspect even if it is important or a favorite pastime is something secondary which can only come after education or be successfully achieved after it, but I tend to disagree, education has often been confused with gaining knowledge or perhaps even gaining some degree. For me education is not important as people think it is, gaining knowledge on the other hand is.

The importance of education has been pressurised upon people through different institutions of society like educational institutions and even parents. This mindset can be traced to even the smallest of things for example most people might remember that back in school, it was a common practice among teachers to take games, P.E. or a free period in order to complete their syllabus. While teachers might have been of the view that it was for the benefit of the students, the truth is it was done in order to just wrap up things quickly. If schools were really concerned about the benefit of the students, they would have made it against the rules to do such a thing because it doesn’t give students the time to relax but instead most schools are now just a money-making business that puts up information in brains of students for which they don’t even get enough time to process.

Another issue is that of tuition centers. It’s one thing if a child doesn’t go to school and is attending a tuition centre but what is the point of wasting your money on a school if you’re going to send your child to a tuition centre anyway? Even the excuse that your child is weak in a certain subject is not a valid one because isn’t it the incompetence of the school and teachers or their parents in the first place if the child is weak in a certain subject?

Not only that but while most parents, teachers and schools emphasise on studies, they either very rarely or never take into consideration things like sports or arts. Their misconception is that those are things that are simply useless and can be done at a later time or is something extra that does not need any time at all. The person’s time is fully prioritised on studying that they do not have the time to do anything else.

Education is prioritized on such a huge level that important tools needed to survive in the society are often ignored such as how to pay your bills, how to cook, how to buy a house or how to drive. A disagreement to this might be that without education you might not able to even know this but the thing is a formula in physics is not going to help you solve these problems; someone has to educate you on this stuff. Not everyone is going to learn from YouTube tutorials.

Then there comes another problem; the question what are you studying? If you’re not doing medical or engineering, your education is invalid. It is true that people have become more acceptable towards other disciplines today but the mindset which disregards other disciplines still exists today and is unfortunately pretty common. People need to realise that every person is different and they all have their qualities and flaws, but the society unfortunately tends to focus on the latter as if their flaws are the only things they see in a person.

Formal education and gaining knowledge is necessary. It is not something that should be done to impress the society but to have a successful path for one’s self. Pressurising people on studying in order to become a better person in a society on the other hand is wrong and should be discouraged. There should be a certain time for studying with breaks in between. This is something that should be realised by parents, teachers and schools. Having four periods with one break followed by another four periods is unhealthy and helping none. There needs to be a more open and liberal approach to education with a focus on other important things as well. Only then will the person and the society in general be on the path to successful road.