Addressing future expectations of any society can be reviewed by the focus of intellectual investment of a state. Meeting the global standards for societal development without giving priority to the intellectual investment is not possible.
Developing the creative thinking & conflict resolution skills in youth is the fundamental responsibility of education system. To what extent youth is intellectually upgraded reflects the priorities of a state.
Intellectual upgradation is a continuous process that is possible with continuous investment on the education system. Learning poverty reflects the quality of intellectual investment.
Learning poverty highlights that youth is not in a position to properly address the emerging problems, issues and gaps of a society. To be skillful as per needs of a society is the symbol of successful intellectual investment.
Many countries of the world are facing political instability. Political instability also represents that to what extent we have developed a true democratic attitude in youth through intellectual investment.
Lack of investment in the education system leads to severe lacks in the personalities of youth. Therefore, for a crime free society, intellectual investment and learning poverty should be reviewed and appropriate measures should be taken.
The ratio of crimes in different forms is rising. Cybercrimes is a global concern and is badly affecting the social, moral and financial development across the global. Cybercrime has become a critical issue in South Asian region.
Similarly, Unemployment and poverty are major causes of criminal attitude in youth. Entrepreneur education should be promoted to develop the business skills in graduates.
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Bridging the Gap
Curriculum needs to be revised and such skills should be included in the curriculum that are demanding in the society. Gaps in understanding and comprehension of societal needs should be identified.
The rationale of having partial understanding of addressing the existing gaps in society should be well identified. There should be continuous focus on the teacher training programs particularly at school level. Primary education provides the roots for intellectual growth of children. Quality of primary education in public sector schools has been critically reported.
Huge gaps are existing in infrastructure of schools. The criteria for the recruitment of primary school teachers should be reviewed. Institutions should be established that you officially certified the primary school teachers for teaching.
It has been reported that private schools look have no more criteria for the recruitment of teachers particularly in South Asian region. Keeping in view the rising situation of violence and crimes, it’s important that law and order situation and the nature of crimes and violence should be taught regularly. In criminal attitude, crime is not a crime.
Targeted outcomes of the educational institutions should be reviewed, and gaps should be well addressed in the form of intellectual investment through provision of sufficient funding to educational institutions, revising curriculum and teacher training programs.
Children Rights Across the Globe
Promoting awareness about the child rights is one of the fundamental responsibilities of a society. Parents should be educated about the child rights. One of the major objectives of the educational institutions is to teach successfully about the child rights.
Unfortunately, harsh attitude of parents and teachers is truly considered a positive attitude for the personality development of children particularly in developing countries.
The term child rights need to be well elaborated in parental climate and educational institutions. Child neglect is a criminal attitude that leads to many behaviors extending from “bad parenting” to serious risks to a child’s health and safety.
Similarly, sexual abuse, exploitation, child labour and trafficking cases have been observed across the globe. United Nations Human Rights reports about the new emerging exploitative practices of online child sexual abuse.
UN reports alarming situation about increasing number of sexual exploitations, sexual slavery, and child marriages particularly in African regions. Internally displaced women and girls are victims of sexual salary as per UN report.
UNICEF report that child labour rises to 160 million worldwide. Child labour leads to mental and physical sickness in the children. Child begging is another curse that is rising. Child kidnapping and child begging are linked together.
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Criminals are involved behind the child kidnapping and child begging. Such criminals must be traced and punished as per state law. For overcoming the crimes against children, youth should play an active role. Particularly, university graduates should be assigned the task in promoting the child the awareness about child rights and child protection.
Societies should be well aware about the criminals who are involved in crimes against children. Electronic and print media should play vital role in promoting the awareness about child rights. Before the marriages, youth should be well trained about the child rights and their development.
State Policies on Child Rights
Wealthy members of society should play active role for the child protection in any society worldwide. It’s true that United Nations has extraordinary practices for the child rights and child protection globally.
States have policies and practices for the child rights and child protection worldwide. But unfortunately, millions of children are still seeking for the rights. Its looks to be we fail in training the parents for the provision of rights to children.
Still, many cases have been reported in which children belonging to physical broken families and psychological broken families are waiting for help as they are bound to work as laborers.
Children are the future of any nation. How are we treating with our children reflects our vision and quality of education. International Labor Organization reports that 16.7 million children at the age of 5-7 years are in child labor in South Asia. Neglecting the child means neglecting the future.
This inequality and injustice lead to crimes and imbalance the societies in many perspectives. ILO reports that 28 million children in South Asia are inactive. They are neither working nor attending any educational institution. This situation is truly disappointing.
Overall, we should evaluate the barriers in the physical, psychological and moral development of children and should well address those barriers for preparing a healthy generation for a better future of society.
The Author Dr. Muhammad Nasir Khan is working as Assistant Professor, Department of Teacher Education, Faculty of Education, International Islamic University Islamabad, Pakistan. The author can be reached at [email protected]
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