Learning From China And Bangladesh

People mostly confabulate about education with degrees in which the importance of knowledge often gets hidden or ignored.Today, we have millions of students holding Master’s degrees in miscellaneous subjects but their lack of knowledge and dexterity in their relevant subjects is hampering them to reach the top echelons in their lives. That is why our degree holders owing to extreme unemployment are bound to work in factories, mills and shops with peanut salaries which are not adequate for living a healthy and sedate life because of the rising inflation and poverty inflicted by the incumbent government.

We all know that education without knowledge has no more value than a single sheet of paper. Considering universities as engines of progress and prosperity, China is extremely careful about who gets admitted. At the level of language, reasoning and math skills, Chinese students are expected and encouraged to comprehend everything that American students learn but better. For the time being, we have thousands of teachers holding PhD degrees from foreign as well as indigenous universities and some of them are HEC certified professors with hundreds of research publications but they would not clear today’s gaokao – the cheating-free university entrance exam .Gaokao is considered to be the toughest in the world and it has beaten even that for various renowned IITs (Indian Institute of Technology).

An unpleasant truth is that China obtained freedom two years after us and see where it is today. When Bangladesh appeared on the map of the world in 1971, it was expected to fail but it proved the world that it had far more potential than the neighboring countries. In the initial years of its inception, its currency (taka) had least or no more value in the world. People of this country used to travel to Pakistan with the aim to earn their livelihood because Pakistan had a robust and strong economy at that time and its currency was more valuable.But the story has changed today.

Bangladesh has left Pakistan far-behind on many fronts, including passport ranking, literacy rate, women empowerment, human development index and poverty alleviation.Moreover,In 1971,the population of Bangladesh was around 70 million compared to Pakistan`s 60 million.

According to current statistics, the population of Bangladesh is 164 million compared to Pakistan`s 220 million.It took some effective measures to control its rising population. Today, Its literacy rate, currency value and life expectancy in Bangladesh is far better than Pakistan and India.

With the inception of Caliph Umar bin Khattab era (634-644 AD), Early Muslims had been endued with a knowledge-based economy. However, the wisdom and acuity of Hazrat Umar was astonishing, if viewed in the context of the political economy, state and governance, and social justice. It arises out of his peerless understanding of religion. The area ruled by Hazrat Umar was more than eight times larger than Pakistan and at that time there were no technologies and innovations and it was impossible for the criminals to impersonate themselves or get off free from the legal punishment after committing a crime. But the bitter reality is that Hazrat Umar had no educational degrees but he was God-fearing, extremely strict on Islamic canons and very generous to the needy. But the question is, how knowledge could empower anyone? The answer is simple but impressive, we make different designs, procedures and methodologies with the help of knowledge and disseminate them with the world. That is how knowledge empowers Nations and makes them rich and prosperous.

As knowledge leads to wisdom, the world has excelled so much in every field of life.Today,we have technologies and mind-boggling innovations such as airplanes to travel abroad, internet to help connect people from across the globe just because of knowledge.The culture,the tradition and the civilization of any country can also be preserved with the help of it. Education without knowledge is just like a body without soul. Education sans knowledge is just like a blank page which has no influence without ink.The success of any country largely depends on knowledge because it leads to progress, prosperity, enhances and promotes literacy rate in the world. In short, after every five years,we have a new Pakistan but with the same old problems. Our country’s government only reads newspapers, watches television only with aim for what is happening in the country and hears godspeed news of other countries only to praise and articulate them in their statements instead of learning from them.