Good morning dear and honorable brothers and sisters. Today's article is a little bit different from the previous ones which tackled mostly wrongdoings in public places, some of which are associated with the traffic department. The title of this article 'Education Needs Disciples' has been in my mind for a long time, and I wanted to dedicate adequate time and effort to address it rather than writing a paragraph or two about it.

I think the article's title says it all, and anyone who reads the title would for sure get an idea about what I will be talking about here. The Education Ministry's name in Arabic literally translates to 'Ministry of Disciple.' I do not see why officials would not take the matter seriously and change the name to be the Discipline and Education Ministry instead of education alone.

Nowadays, I hear so many incidents and wrongdoings taking place in various government schools for our kids by some of the teachers who are supposed to set a good example to be followed by the students and others. Personally, my little kids keep telling me every day: "Dad, I want to tell you something that happened in school." "Ya Allah what now?" I answer. They reply by saying that one of the teachers yelled at them and told them to stand by the garbage can as punishment. Some teachers also call students names of all animals in the universe. Some also threaten the little ones if they did not bring a project or do the homework. So, after this, would you expect the kids to like school?

The teachers who do not tolerate, be kind or friendly with the kids must sit at home or go seek advice from a psychologist because our kids are our future. I also hear some little ones repeating insults every now and then. When asked why they say these words, they reply by saying that they heard them from the teachers, believing that those must be good words because they believe that teachers will always say good and respectable things.

Lastly, in the seventies and eighties of the past century, teachers were like angels. They used to beat us when we did wrong, and our parents never objected. Instead, they would tell the teachers and principal to discipline us. So, now we bore the fruits of their discipline to us, and this can be seen obviously in our respect to them. Whereas nowadays, many of the teachers fear the young students because they can be subjected to questioning or sued by the parents. Many young students now know very well how to punish the teachers if they do not give them good marks through burning their cars' tires or even damaging their vehicles. Many teachers now park their cars in nearby areas and come walking to school in fear of that. This is something I was personally told by an expatriate teacher.

Until the next article insha Allah.

By Talal Al-Ghannam