The real essence of education is to help one understand the large horizon of this life including its sensitivities, tremendous beauties, but along with sorrows and more importantly, transforming them into joys. One can earn a lot of available degrees and have a series of appreciation letter after his/her name that can result in landing at a decent or sometimes extraordinary job but then what to do after that? There are more questions which are important to be put in front of the education systems of the world. Firstly, if a mind becomes dull, weary and stupid by cramming then what is the use of such education? Is it not like that, one should be able to find the true meaning of life when he is young? And this is where the role of education is to cultivate intelligence in human mind for finding out the answer to that.

Intelligence cultivation is one of the major functions of education and it is the ability to think freely without any fear or formula so that one discovers what is real and what is not. However, there are certain aspects that can damage the intelligence level of an individual including frightened behavior, fear and anxiety. If one is frightened, he can never be intelligent due to an unknown pressure. It is very important for individuals to bring them up in an environment that is free of fear so that they have an open minded approach towards the world. It is not only being liberal but is more close to understanding and looking at the situations without any bias or perceived understanding. The usual fears that we give to our society at large and are developed at a very early stage in the brains of children are fear of losing a job, afraid of traditions and customs, what the people will say, what the family will say and at last, fear of death and even sometimes living a miserable life.

Looking at the bigger picture of life with an utmost authenticity, it is quite hard to live in an environment that is free of fear and anxiety but one can develop an environment of freedom for his children. Life is one of the blessings of Almighty and we shall appreciate it by experiencing its richness, depth, extraordinary loveliness, and extreme moments of sorrow and grief but it can only be experienced when we step out of the clichés. We live in a society of barriers including religion, traditions and customs of our society, city, province etc. One has to revolt against all this in order to become a true human being as advised by Allah Almighty for finding out for oneself what is true and what is not.

These findings shall not be replication of others but discovery of oneself, this is what education is but we have lost somewhere in darkness. One can easily feel convenience by adopting the practices of parents, society and what teachers tell us but that is again a life full of fear, biases and anxiety. This is not the right way to live a life, it is rather waiting for yourself to get decay until death reaches. The right way to live is to find out yourself what is true and this can be done only when there is freedom and is a constant revolution from within oneself. As rightly Baba Bulleh Shah said, “parh parh alam fazil huya kadi apny ap no parhaya nahi, ja ja warda mandir masjid par mann apney wich warhya e nahi”.

However, the society at large discourages to do this and live life with such a freedom. To find out for oneself what Almighty is and what he wants from us makes one rebel and this can cause danger to the one trying to find out. Therefore, parents, family and teachers want that individual to live safely but imitating their values. At last, this is where education is of critical nature as its primary purpose is to teach us to live freely without any fear and create an atmosphere in which there are no or limited fears with encouraging great deal of thinking.

By; Daniyal Ahmad

The blogger hails from Lahore and has been writing content for various leading platforms since 2015. Education, Current Affairs, Sports and Social Issues are the expertise of blogger. The blogger can be contacted using his email address daniyal.ahmad71@gmail.com