By: Professor Hafiz Wardak, Editor-in-Chief, SAE eNewsletter, former professor at Kabul University and fellow at Boeing Aerospace company, USA.
Greetings, happy new year, and welcome to the first issue of the SAE eNewsleter of the year 2022. Our hope is that you had a pleasant, safe, and healthy 2021. On this first day of the year 2022, I would like to share with you an important topic in the following few paragraphs.
The news sources around the world, had ample debates and coverage of education during the past year. It is timely to remind readers of the SAE eNewsletter the significance and importance of education and its impact on the well-being of a nation.
From the Islamic point of view, based on the two main sources the Quran and Sunnah, education and knowledge are vitally important and highly emphasized for human being. Obtaining knowledge and education and providing access of it to all is accentuated in Islam. With education and knowledge, one can fulfil obligation and duties to Allah (SWT) and humanity nobly.
Education, in general and in today’s terminology, guides and propel citizens of a nation to prosperity, progress, peace, stability, and wellbeing. It leads the populous to establish a well-balanced functioning society, and it becomes a leading force for creating operational infrastructure that are essential for a healthy and balanced society. The role of higher education institutions is so vital for the survival of a nation that they can be considered and categorized as a critical infrastructure.
Years ago, I was enrolled at an “English as a Second Language (ESL)” class at the University of Hawaii. The ESL professor, asked the class: why is the United States of America (USA) the most powerful nation in the world? Few students responded it has a strong military force, few other said it has more money, several other responses along the same line were mentioned. The professor said the correct answer is, USA has the world best higher educational institutions. He named MIT, Case Institute of Technology (CIT), Caltech, Stanford, Yale, U Penn, Harvard, NYU, and several other higher educational institutions across the country. These institutions have produced a vastly educated populations that led to the creation of a highly advanced and functional infrastructure and made this country the most powerful nation on earth.
We witness India, it provides and export technical workforce, especially scientist, engineers, and technologist to the entire world. India’s leaders valued and recognized that key to progress and wellbeing is education, thus promoted its youths to attend the best universities of USA and Europe, at the same time built and strengthened its own educational institutions, and infrastructure. China, another example, decades ago it started sending many youths, each year to attend the best schools in USA and Europe. At the same time supported and built their own higher education institutions and infrastructure. We witness the results of their action today.
Singapore, a small nation, with highly educated populations, and well trained and dedicated leadership, have risen to become the best global economies with exemplary developed infrastructure. The quality of life and overall lifestyle of its citizen has reached an impressive level.
In general, a nation with highly educated populace has the most functional and needed infrastructure. I am using the word infrastructure by the definition of dictionary, it covers the basic physical and organizational structures and facilities needed for the operation of a social and economic of society, systems, and services that a country needs to function properly and normally. A nation with well-planned and maintained infrastructures has the best healthcare system such are hospitals, qualified doctors, well maintained transportation systems, water supply facilities and their management, energy sources, waste disposal system, well maintained educational systems, excellent communication system, services including law enforcement, emergency services, etc. Most important these nations continuously improve and update their existing educational system.
Nations where higher education or education in general does not get priority, they end up with less educated residents. Lack of proper education holds them back on establishing and building infrastructure, job creations, and overall economic growth, developments, stability, and survival of the nation become a challenge. The leaders struggle to allocate budget to build infrastructure, create jobs and employment for citizen. They cannot improve it’s citizen quality of life and end up with infrastructure that is non-functional or non-existent.
Without educated cadre of professionals, a sustained and balanced growth of well-functioning infrastructure will not come to existence. It is the professionals in various fields that can plan, operate, and execute, for example transport of people and goods, provide clean drinking water, safe disposal of community waste products, create and develop energy sources and build and sustain medical hospitals and provide health services to the community. Yes, indeed education can also bring peace and prosperity to the world. Let us join hands and make the Society of Afghan Engineers a champion and supporter of education at every level in Afghanistan.