Afghanistan: Education attacked

http://www.afghanistantimes.af

Afghanistan has become a country where rhetoric pulls more crowds than reason and rationalism. Our current and as well as coming generations are faced with a bleak and challenging future because in a society where reason, debate culture, and intolerance have gone missing then it is quite difficult to give them a secure and prosperous future. Sectarianism, tribal feuds, militancy, corruption, ethnic tensions, and internal bickering are some of the social evils that have made home here which collectively are pushing back this country into the age of barbarism, intolerance and deadly dormancy, for we have become a nation that doesn’t make efforts on its own to overcome its own problems but ogles for outside support, always. We are quite expert in blaming others for our own blunders and problems but quite blockhead to keep our house in order ourselves. Just ask anyone on a road or in a university that who is responsible for the miseries of this miserable nation and you will get a long list, starting from Israelis, Americans, Pakistanis, Iranians, and Indians but hardly you will hear that we ourselves are responsible for our current plight. Who killed a Kabul University student and injured 28 others in the violent clashes stirred by an attempt by Shiite students to flagellate themselves at the main mosque on the campus during the Ashura rituals? The response is, no Israeli, no American, no Pakistani, and no Indian but Afghans. Then why to blame others? Our illiterates are being killed by NATO, Americans and the Taliban whereas our students are being killed by students. Earlier the children of the nation witnessed a setback over political move when a University name was renamed after the then peace interlocutor, Prof. Burhanuddin Rabbani whereas the anger of the students was not allayed that Kabul universities’ students received another setback. The sectarian clashes in the Kabul University’s hostels have led to the extension of vacation for three months. Though initially the government has declared classes will remain suspended for 10 days but to control the hostile situation that was triggered on the day of Ashura has left a bad mark on the history of our education. The decision has been taken by the government in such a time when university exams were quite near while now they will have to take their exams in February 2013. It was a good decision by the government to pacify the searing anger of the Sunni and Shiite students but the government will have to take two steps, either to impose ban on political and certain other sensitive activities in education institutions that could potentially put the peaceful environment of universities in danger or ensure freedom of speech and act until it is in contrast to law of the land. Moreover the religious minority should keep their rituals away from university when they have other places to perform freely with no hindrance. Why our universities have turned into centers for sordid politics, and that too, a politics of polarization and hatred. Those behind the sectarian violence in the university should be trialed and those found guilty should be sent behind bars. Such like incidents are badly affecting our collective behavior and those students who want to stay aside from politics are reluctantly pushed into the whirl of ethnic politics and the politics of sectarianism. Earlier our education was in danger from the insurgents and now unfortunately education has been endangered by students themselves. What difference is there between the insurgents and those students who have disturbed the environment for education? Both should respond to the nation as the nation asks them why they have been doing it, at whose behest, and for whose advantage.