EDUCATION DEVELOPS CONSCIENCE

Developing competence without developing conscience and character gives birth to brilliant terrorists and wily politicians who can cause unending sufferings to innocent human beings and the destruction of humanity.

Every day the media both electronic and print, bring out sensational stories of violence, corruption, rape and other crimes. One feels overwhelmed when terrorists blow up trains in serial bomb blasts. Ordinary people usually go numb when they come to know that a single young person is willing to become a human bomb to kill hundreds of innocent people in a busy market. People’s faith in the elected members of Parliament is lost when they hear the stories of others misusing their status for human trafficking. Cases of rape, kidnapping and murder are common crimes attributed today to lawmakers and rulers. At times, they seem to be the qualifications required to obtain tickets from political parties. The common people who are more conditioned by caste and religion than by critical analysis cote for them. One among the sensational stories was the arrest of Dr. Amit Kumar the kingpin of multimillion dollar kidney racket with more than 500 cases of kidney transplants.

There was news in media, in the past too, about illegal organ sales. But the arrest of Dr. Amit Kumar has revealed the gigantic proportion of this racket. This is the first time that we hear this large scale business of human organs. It was reported that many of these kidneys were stolen from migrant workers. Even those who voluntarily donated their kidneys were given a paltry amount, while Dr. Amit and his team sold them for three to five lakh rupees each, both in India and abroad.

When such crimes are reported, people often ask, “Don’t they have a conscience? Are they not educated people?” In this context it is important to review the definition and process of education. Generally, more serious crimes with larger damage to society are committed by the “educated elite!” The crimes committed by the ministers, parliamentarians, legislators, doctors, industrialists, are far more serious than the crimes committed by the petty thieves.

The clever methods which theses elite criminals use to commit the most horrible crimes remind me of a definition of education by John Solan Dickey: “The end of education is to see man made whole, both in competence and conscience. For to create the power of competence without creating corresponding direction to guide the use of that power, is bad education. Furthermore, competence will finally disintegrate apart from conscience.”

The words of Dickey are so poignantly right in today’s context. Today teachers and parents give their full attention to developing the competence of students. Educational institutions are competing to give the best facilities to develop the skills and competence of their students, Information technology, facilities for sports and developing all kinds of skills are given top priority. Very little importance is given to developing t he character and conscience of students. Some institutions are satisfied to provide academic lessons through ‘Moral science’. The institutions run by religious societies are satisfied to organize some sessions on religious practices. Do the teachers and parents ever find out how conscience is formed? Are there ways to find out how they develop qualities of sensitivity to the poor and the marginalized? Dot he teachers help their wards create their own opinion about socio political realities? Is there any mechanism to discover their growth in spiritual values common to all religions and provide the foundation for human existence?

In this world of competition people have understood the latter’s importance. Parents and teachers, therefore miss no opportunity to develop the competence of their students. In their obsession with competence, they neglect developing conscience and character. The result is disastrous!. We now have engineers and scientists who can devise modern instruments of mass destruction; we have politicians who indulge in large scale corruption and yet escape without being caught; we have doctors who can steal kidneys and vital organs from their patients without their knowledge.

Dr. Amit Kumar and his clique developed competence without developing conscience. Hence they could operate such a large racket. Since politicians and criminals have developed competence without conscience, they don’t  hesitate to make decisions which take the life of hundreds of innocent people. Teachers, parents and educational institutions should set their priorities in the academic life of their students. Developing competence without developing conscience and character gives birth to brilliant terrorists and wily politicians who can cause unending sufferings to innocent human beings and the destruction of humanity. Prevention is better than cure. Will those engaged in the education of the young generation take note of this warning?

- Fr. Varghese Alengaden, USM, Indore.