‘Let’s get this going’
By Talha Masud
I still remember those hot afternoons of June in Karachi when I, a fat eight year old kid repetitively tried to learn the mathematics tables on the huge balcony. The reason was that I was taught nothing in my school in interior Balochistan and was forcefully put in the coaching center in winter vacation; I felt that my Karachi tuition mates were far more ahead in giving answers to the tuition aunty.
Problems remained the same until my secondary classes. I discussed it with Mr. Faraz, one of the best teachers I had in my life and his answer was simple and convincing. “Talha! No one will listen to your pleas of not having good teachers or your miss-fortunes; in fact no one has time to listen to the causes of your failures. It’s you who has to run extra miles to grapple your problems in studies”. Since than, his words are tied in my mind and whenever I meet him, I think hard that what I have, to give this great man in return of changing my loser approach and all the times I had no conclusions.
A teacher is beyond an imagination of a simple person and is worth to be respected if he has transmitted any knowledge in you. The rewards teachers get in our society is unique: They get killed because they are teachers. Yes. I have come back to Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan, where many teachers having served more than twenty years are shot dead because they are teachers. Because they are the only science teachers and rest are confined to general and linguistic subjects. A teacher who teaches beyond the boundaries of ethnicity and religion deserves no condemnation when he losses his life as a reward of giving the thankless services of illuminating a torch of education. On some occasions, I tend to think that why they serve in a province where there is no dignity for them. Who gave them the right to come and serve in the educationally ignorant province? When in a province where they are not required and where generally, students believe that because the teachers are being paid, so they have the right to assault them. This, sadly, has to do with our culture now.
On a lighter note, when I have heard that students protested to allow ‘cheating’ in a reputable institution nearby my home, I could not believe that the illicit demands are so brazenly asked because there is no responsible authority to keep a check and balance on leftover educational institutions in Balochistan. Coming back to Quota system uproar, suppose there are reserved quota of seats, say, ten (maximum) for a district and there are twenty deserving candidates from the same district, where would they go? Is it a fair order to shove those in an open merit passage?
Watching a Picture of a topper of a department in University of Balochistan, whose eyes looked opened in sheer astonishment in the picture, had a funny comment from someone that “He himself is flabbergasted about his position” provided a good laughing stock but the only remedy I believe is setting us for broader competition. The complacency of belonging from any backward area is not acceptable in the sense of a competitive world. Why don’t we take the easy examples of the student of far flung northern areas, North West Frontier and FATA who in large numbers, establish themselves in Lahore in rental rooms, prepare for CSS and other competitive exams, do part time labor for bearing their study expenses and many of them go through as the record clearly states about the big ratio of village qualifiers in CSS results being there for a long time now. The practical example is seen in the libraries’ which open at 8:00 and I could see a crowd of the students waiting before the opening times and throwing their books on the library chairs to get their seats reserved for the next many hours. Most of them are the education seekers of remote areas all across Pakistan and we the people from Balochistan, are self-righteous enough to stay stagnant on political slogans. The results are self explanatory.
Our prosperity lies on our own build-up. For how long had we been crying of being deprived? We have to travel, migrate and acquire the longing for education if we are to make a difference in our homes, towns and cities. Surpassing from the process of a creditable future and outshining the better-fed and better-educated metropolis contenders would itself make us not believing on the outcries of limited opportunities as I cited my own preoccupation and mental fixation in the initial paragraphs. Being an inspirational figure of one’s family or tribe, one can better be the opinion leader of his youngsters who will not face the hard problems as he did but may be ending much better leading towards a real vision and success as a destination.
U know ! i too am really week in maths.
