Daily Times

On March 20, 2019 a teacher, Professor Khalid Hameed of the English department from Government Sadiq Egerton College in Bahawalpur was stabbed to death by a student. The student was from the same department studying in 5th semester of hisbachelor’s degree.In a viral video, the convicted student who tells his name Khateeb Hussain shows no regret on murder of the teacher. When asked of why he did not choose a legal course against the professor, he said that the “country’s laws pave way for freedom of blasphemers”. Media reports that student had ahot exchange of words with the professor over a planned mixed welcome gathering of male and female students after which the student killed the professor in his office in the early morning. The story has been covered on television, print and social media worldwide.

This is not the very first murder of a teacher by a student,however, there have been several before. Some of the cases have been highlighted others remained under the carpet or “namaloomafrad” were blamed.These days student extremism have become a common phenomenon. Some of the student extremism examples of the recent past are attack on MQM leader Khwaja Izharul Hasan, the terrorist attack near Safoora Goth on Ismaili minority, lynching of Mashal Khan at Mardan University, terror plan of Noreen Laghari, a medical student, and beating of as tudent’s husband at the Punjab University.

Back in 2010, when we were in final year of our degree,the university offered us a Pakistan tour, which was a business as usual. We were accompanied by one of our teachers who was tasked to manage the tour and its expenses. The tour was joined by a group of around 60 students (all male).Even tough, I had witnessed several student clashes in past, however,for the very first time I witnessed extremism and arrogance. On the tour of around 2 weeks, the students harassed the in-charge teacher and tried to confront almost every day and used to enforce changes. Vulnerability of the tour completion loomed until we finished.One day, the whole group was in a major city of the country for sightseeing. Within the city, we were moving from one location to another, suddenly a vehicle came in-front and stopped our buses. What we saw were some of our fellows coming out of the vehicle and started shouting and yelling at our teacher. They took teacher with them in the vehicle to a different location and asked students to shut up and wait in the buses until they are settled with teacher. They came back after 1 hourmaking us wait on road.

At institutions, especially in the public sector, we teachers do not play our due role in bringing harmony and love among students

We must understand, why students specially teenagers are vulnerable to such heinous acts of crime and violence. Personality development plays a vital role in the way we behave to situations and act upon.Personality developmenten roots to two fundamentals;nature and nurture. Nature refers to the genetic factors while nurture refers to environmental factors. These two distinct factors make humans behave differently. Research shows that there are seven deep personal needs of a human being like power, achievement, affiliation, importance, purpose, morality and excitement. Deprivation of personal needs lead them to depression, frustration, anxiety, social isolation and pain. Under the worst-case scenario, in such a situation, students either commit suicide or indulge in unethical activities and extremism, which reflect their personaltraits. Moreover, UNESCO in their teacher’s guide on the prevention of violent extremism (2016) reported the push factors”, such as: marginalisation, inequality, discrimination, persecution or the perception thereof; limited access to quality and relevant education; the denial of rights and civil liberties; and other environmental, historical and socio-economic grievances drive individuals to violent extremism.

We must focus on how deprivation of personal needs or push factors take birth. We have a diverse population from poor to elite class. We also have a diverse education system, private, public schooling to madrassahs. Our diversity further goes from spoken languages to written languages within schools, cultures and caste systems. Cultural diversity is a very good thing to have but it creates vulnerability, which exploits individuals against the deprivation of personal desires and provokes the push factors. Specially the environmental and socio-economic grievances, which provoke discrimination and inequality.

The variation of poor class to upper is very high and unimaginable to elite and exists even between middle and upper class, which cannot end quickly. However, a uniform education system can help students in equal learning, opportunities, harmony and tolerance.The United Nations Security Council also emphasises on quality education for peace leading youth to engage constructively in civic structures and inclusive political processes, mechanisms to promote a culture of peace, tolerance, intercultural and interreligious dialogue that involve youth and discourage their participation in acts of violence, terrorism, xenophobia, and all forms of discrimination.Sometimes students get carried away due to family abuse too, which is a common reason for extremist behaviour in teenagers.

At institutions,especially in the public sector, we teachers do not play our due role in bringing harmony and love among students. Sometimes we fail in developing communication and interpersonal skills in students to carry out a sensible dialogue or agree to disagree, critical thinking to investigate reasons behind problems, procedures for verifying rumours or legitimacy of viral theories, their role in upbringing a socially and emotionally attached society and proud citizens. The very fact is we teach for the heck teaching where memorisation is the way forward. And very unfortunately, sometimes we teachers do play games too. We involve students in our dirty politics and play with their sentiments or their weaknesses like to pass their subjects specially in public sector universities.

Let’s be a better society with shared values and common agenda. Let’s be better parents and teachers. Else, it was Khateeb yesterday, tomorrow will be someone else. Let’s end this and bring peace and harmony, where no students become killers.

The writer is an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering and Director for Quality Enhancement Cell at Dawood University of Engineering and Technology in Karachi

Published in Daily Times, March 23^rd 2019.