Spirituality and Education

At the World Education Forum 2014, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, Deputy Prime Minister cum Education Minister recently made a noteworthy statement, citing ethics and spirituality should be taught in schools. As an educationist, I truly welcome this courageous announcement.

Basically education taught at large is secular in nature. Spiritual education is always not given prominence in education. I believe Malaysia is one of the few countries where Moral Education and Islamic Education is taught in schools. School is the source of various kinds of knowledge. Spirituality should be one the most prominent one to be imparted to children.

Ignoring values, ethics and spirituality in education is not acceptable at this juncture as rightly put forth by the Deputy Premier. Education without the spiritual element is not a wholesome education.  In fact, spiritual elements are the basics of a human being. Spirituality differentiates human being and other creations of the Almighty. Children can attain human perfection through spiritual qualities. 

Spirituality teaches us unity, union and harmony among men, to show respect elders and others, promote tolerance and brotherhood. If all these values are taught and embedded in the young minds of children, we have a more peaceful and beautiful world. Every child is potentially the light of the world and the same time darkness; therefore the question of education be accounted as of primary importance.

Let us hope embedding compulsory spiritual education in schools a step towards making our children excel in their life and thus become a brilliant child to their parents and  outstanding citizen to this nation. 

Mental Health of Children

 It is disturbing to read the report in English daily that some 20 per cent of children in schools are depressed as shown by a study conducted by NHMS. One of the causes cited for depression was lack of parental guidance. Parents fail to  understand their children, in particular, their emotional needs.

 As advocated by deputy director-general of health (public health) Datuk Dr Lokman Hakim Sulaiman, schools, in particular, parent-teacher associations (PTAs) should provide social support through holding parenting courses. Parenting seminars and courses should be made mandatory to identify mental health problems among children.

Parenting skills are essential for parents to cope up with the mental issue of students talked about much today. One of the best ways to impart the skills is through parenting seminars, workshops and courses. At large, not many parenting programmes are organized in schools, whether primary or secondary schools. In the West parenting programmes for parents are conducted regularly to educate the parents on the parenting skills, unlike in Malaysia parenting programmes are scarcely conducted in schools. 

As one who is involved in conducting such programmes, I see this as a wake-up call to all PTAs and parents.

They need to collaborate and tackle this problem. We should not allow more of our children to succumb to this mental problem.