If your father doesn’t have piles of money, fancy cars, or a big house—then your best bet is to focus on your education. And even if you do have all those privileges, you still need education to learn how to manage and sustain them wisely. If you want respect, or if you want to maintain your family’s dignity in society, there’s no alternative to education. For lower and middle-income families, education is the only key to changing their fate and building a better future. For the privileged, education provides the path to empathy, decency, and becoming a true human being.
Having money without education creates the most ineffective and disconnected members of society. And having neither wealth nor education creates the most helpless. But those who may lack money yet pursue education wholeheartedly—they don’t stumble in life’s journey. It’s their dreams that guide them forward.
In any healthy society, it’s the educated individuals who are respected. There’s no substitute for knowledge when it comes to removing mental poverty and social neglect. But knowledge doesn’t just come from textbooks—real learning can take many forms and shapes. Still, for struggling families, education has proven time and again to bring financial independence, social acceptance, and dignity. Education can be the only remedy to overcome the shame of an uncertain identity. Students who are dedicated and responsible from a young age often find that education never gives up on them—it lifts them until they reach their goals.
Those who became famous and are still celebrated long after their time—all had one thing in common: knowledge. Their path to success was built on the foundation of learning.
It’s heartbreaking, but today’s generation is chasing countless wrong alternatives to education. Wealth and power have become the ultimate goals. A shortcut mentality is being sold to the youth, misleading them into thinking they can bypass effort. Corrupt, power-hungry politics has tangled students in its web. Talk to any classroom teacher, and you’ll hear the same thing—students can be made to do anything… except study.
Even students considered “good” are often just narrowly focused on memorizing their textbooks. But textbooks can only take you so far—they stop at a boundary, while real life asks for more. A large chunk of students have become part of power-driven teenage gangs. The rest? Glued to phones, TikTok, and wasting time online or in pointless hangouts. Out of a thousand students, maybe one or two reach their full potential—but that’s not a true success rate. Compare this to past generations, where most peers found success together.
When a watermelon rots, the stench is instant. But when a generation rots, the consequences take decades to show. That’s where we’re headed now. Take a look at public libraries in towns and cities—the silence is deafening. No readers. No buyers. Sometimes not even visitors. Dust gathers thick on the locked doors and forgotten shelves.
So where is the youth spending their time? If not in the library, maybe on the playground? Sadly, no. Most are buried in mobile games, sitting indoors in dark rooms, losing the distinction between night and day. Others roam around in teen gang circles. I’ve seen it myself during Ramadan—youngsters who leave home saying they’re going to pray, but instead gather for phone-focused hangouts in street corners and alleys.
The harsh truth is, most parents have lost control over their teenagers. And this lack of guidance will have a price. It won’t just be the parents who suffer—our entire nation will face the storm when the time comes.
All state-led initiatives to reform and improve the country will fail unless our youth walk the right path. If they don’t develop love for their country, a sense of ethics, and personal responsibility, we’ll lose hope as a nation. Governments can build roads, but we need educated and conscious travelers to walk them.
So, it’s time to invest in people—starting with our youth. We must bring students back into the habit of reading and studying. This sector deserves the highest national priority and balanced investment. Once young people reconnect with real learning, the bad habits will fade naturally. And when that happens, crimes involving children and teens will also decrease.
