In our society, people speak a great deal about education. Everywhere we hear: Learn, send your children to school, earn a degree, and move forward in life. In itself, this is completely right. Education is important, very important.

But there is one question we should ask ourselves: Is education only the name of a degree? Does reading and writing automatically mean awareness? Does a person truly change only because he holds a certificate or diploma in his hand?

Many people receive an education, but their thinking remains where it already stood in their childhood. Their language changes, their clothing changes, their mobile phone changes, and a title or degree appears before their name. But their thinking about women does not change. Their behavior toward children does not change. The difference between truth and lies does not become visible in practical life. The law is not understood as a principle, but only as pressure. And punctuality is not seen as necessary.

Such education gives a person information, but not awareness. There is a difference between information and awareness. Through information, a person can give answers. Through awareness, a person can ask questions himself. Information can lead to a job. Awareness shapes character. Information brings a certificate. Awareness opens the mind.

If an educated man comes home and speaks disrespectfully to a woman, sees his daughter as less valuable, forces his son to follow the path he has chosen for him, understands a child’s question as insolence, lies in the office, breaks the law on the street, and still considers himself educated, then the problem is not education itself, but the lack of awareness.

The real effect of education should be visible in a person’s behavior. How educated a person is should not be recognized only by his degree, but by his character. How does he speak to those who are weaker? Does he see a woman as a human being or as possession? Does he listen to a child, or does he only give orders? Can he tolerate a different opinion, or does he immediately become angry? Does he respect time, or does he waste the time of other people? Does he speak the truth, or does he change his words according to the situation?

We have often reduced education to a profession. A child studies so that later he can get a job, have an income, and bring respect to the family. All of this is important. But the real purpose of education is not only livelihood. Education should also open the mind.

If, after receiving a degree, a person still cannot see the world beyond his own house, his own street, his own family, old traditions, and a few stories he has heard, then his education is incomplete.

Some people judge the whole world on the basis of a few bad experiences. If five people have deceived them, they decide that all people are bad. If they have had two bad experiences with women, they pass judgment on all women. If one child becomes disobedient, they say: The children of today are all spoiled. Such thinking is not the sign of an educated mind, but of a limited mind.

The world is much larger than one person’s personal experiences. One street is not the world. One city is not the world. One family is not the world. A few relationships are not the world. This should be the task of education: to lead a person out of his limited view. Education should show him that there are different people, different systems, different ways of thinking, and different ways of living in the world. Whoever judges the world only by what he has heard or personally experienced remains inwardly closed, even if he can read and write.

One of the greatest tests of education takes place inside one’s own home. If a woman receives no respect in the house, if a child is not allowed to ask questions, if a daughter is not given the same trust as a son, and if a son is not granted the right to choose his own path, then degrees may enter that house, but awareness does not.

Awareness means seeing the other person as a human being. It means not treating relationships as possession, not wanting to turn children into copies of oneself, and understanding women not only as responsibility, but also as strength.

We must think about whether we are truly educated, or whether we only possess degrees. A degree can be hung on a wall. Awareness shows itself in life. A degree can be shown to others. Awareness becomes visible in behavior. A degree can be written next to a name. Awareness appears in respect toward women, in trust toward children, in truth, time, law, and humanity.

If our education does not improve our home, our behavior, our language, our decisions, and the future of our children, then we must think again about what education actually means to us.

Education is not what only enables a person to earn. Education is what enables a person to think, to understand, to ask questions, to change, and to make life better for other people.

Shahid Shakil