Flora Teckie
A Bahá’í Perspective
AS we mark International Literacy Day on September 8, it is timely to reflect on the importance of an all-inclusive and balanced education for the development of individuals and advancement of communities.
Although there are many efforts globally towards universal education, inequalities persist.
According to the UNESCO Institute of Statistics, at least 765 million adults worldwide still cannot read and write, two-thirds of them being women, while 250 million children are failing to acquire basic literacy skills.
Education must be provided to all.
In this regard, the Universal House of Justice, the governing council of the Bahá’í international community, says: “The cause of universal education … deserves the utmost support that the governments of the world can lend it. For ignorance is indisputably the principal reason for the decline and fall of peoples and the perpetuation of prejudice. No nation can achieve success unless education is accorded all its citizens.”
There are inequalities in many parts of the world, especially in terms of education of girls and their ability to further their education.
Emphasising the importance of educating women and girls, the Universal House of Justice says: “The decision-making agencies involved would do well to consider giving first priority to the education of women and girls, since it is through educated mothers that the benefits of knowledge can be most effectively and rapidly diffused throughout society.”
While it is important that everyone has access to education — boys and girls, men and women — it is not enough to teach people skills and techniques.
They should also be trained in the right values and attitudes.
Education, whether at home or at institutions of learning, must guide individuals in their moral empowerment, and not just in their intellectual development.
Moral empowerment and intellectual development
The Bahá’í Writings state: “Arts, crafts and sciences uplift the world of being and are conducive to its exaltation. Knowledge is as wings to man’s life and a ladder for his ascent.”
However, academic education has to be balanced with moral and spiritual education.
As the Bahá’í Writings confirm, “knowledge is praiseworthy when it is coupled with ethical conduct and virtuous character” and that “the proper education of children is of vital importance to the progress of mankind, and the heart and essential foundation of all education is spiritual and moral training”.
The love of God, and moral and spiritual guidance, can help in instilling good behaviour in our children. It is through spiritual education that they are directed to use the knowledge, tools and means they acquire through intellectual education for the advantage of humanity.
A balanced education includes an element of serving humanity.
Serving the common good, in addition in its role in building better communities, is an essential aspect of one’s own spiritual development.
The Bahá’í International Community states that “successful education will cultivate virtue as the foundation for personal and collective well-being and will nurture in individuals a deep sense of service and an active commitment to the welfare of their families, their communities, their countries, indeed, all mankind”.
Universal education is a prerequisite for world peace
Education can play an important role in building a peaceful world society by instilling in every individual the awareness of the oneness of humanity, which is necessary for unity in our communities and for global peace.
There is a close relationship between moral and spiritual education and peace.
“Peace”, according to the Bahá’í Writings, “stems from an inner state supported by a spiritual or moral attitude, and it is chiefly in evoking this attitude that the possibility of enduring solutions can be found”.
Love for humanity can be brought into our educational programmes by empowering our children to see beauty and harmony in diversity.
According to the Universal House of Justice,“the diversity that characterises the human family, far from contradicting its oneness, endows it with richness. Unity, in its Bahá’í expression, contains the essential concept of diversity, distinguishing it from uniformity. … world unity is possible—nay, inevitable—it ultimately cannot be achieved without unreserved acceptance of the oneness of humankind.”
Education should contribute both to individual growth and to the transformation of society.
It should aim at cultivating mutual tolerance, love of humanity, understanding, the peaceful resolution of conflicts and respect for different ethical values.
A balanced education would enable people to live in harmony and peace in an atmosphere of understanding and respect for one another.
It would be a kind of education that would promote cooperation and unity within our families and communities.
A balanced education would cultivate the capacity to participate in one’s own development. It would make individuals collaborators both in their own growth and in the development of their communities.
Therefore, education must be provided to all, using an integrated approach to the development of various capacities that individuals potentially have — spiritual, moral, intellectual, emotional and physical.
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