If we as a society have to address problems whether it is HIV/AIDS, corruption, extortion culture, land encroachment, violence, anti-social crimes or youth indiscipline, the best place to begin is among the young people, the students and those who teach them, the teachers. While education must be a priority, we need to also be ‘informed’, ‘concerned’ and ‘challenged’ about the burning issues of our times so that all of us can become partners in bringing about solutions to our problems we face. We need to be the change—to transform our society. And for that change we need to become good citizens. One can become a successful student, teacher, entrepreneur, politician etc but does that mean you can also become a ‘good citizen’. And so while our Naga society needs good citizens, the starting point has to be the young people. And for this we need, not just formal education but value based education, whether it comes from the schools, colleges, church, the teachers, from the family or even the media. Our present education system is turning out doctors, engineers, lawyers, etc., but to some extent, we are not able to develop good citizens.
Here related to the idea of a good citizen, we thought to mention about something that will inspire all of us. All of us would have heard about a certain Jack Welch, someone who for over 40 years helped build General Electric into a world renowned company. By the way General Electric is a company best known for the innovation they have brought to humankind—the first light bulb, first X-ray machine, the first jet engine etc. Anyway Jack Welsh talks about some of the qualities that take to be a winner. Before calling people for job interviews for his company Jack Welch would first undertake a screening test. And one of the qualities he looked for was this—Integrity i.e. people who will tell the truth and keep their word; people who will take responsibility for past actions, admit mistakes and fix them. According to Jack Welch, these are the people who know the laws or rules of their society, country, company and abide by them. They play to win the right way, by the rules. And isn’t this the need of the hour—whether as politicians, bureaucrats, contractors, students, teachers, media, church—every section of our society needs to inculcate this quality of integrity and try to develop as good citizens. We will become a better people. Our government system, society, politics, education, development, everything will improve.
And given that education is the real basis to empower an individual, a society or a nation we need to therefore have a holistic approach to education—one that goes beyond books, classrooms or degrees. It should be about educating the mind, body and spirit, of inculcating the correct values and very important—to prepare young people to face up to the prospects and challenges that life throws up….or like the situation we had on September 1—how we can learn to live in peace and address our problems through proper thinking, reasoning and dialogue. Education and learning should produce not only successful people but also responsible and law abiding good citizens in all of us. If education can do this we will have more assets then liability in our society.
