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Three schools from India and Pakistan joined forces to win the regional leg of a prestigious NASA-sponsored aerospace design competition held in India. The teams included one from a girls’ school in Lahore. The winners, with their Indian peers, will travel to the USA later in the year to participate in the finals, alongside teams that have qualified from around the world. There are several messages to be taken from this. One is the tremendous potential of India and Pakistan if they could learn to put aside their differences and work together. The success by schoolchildren in joining hands to put together a complex project, involving a proposal for a settlement in space, should offer an example to our leaders. There is much to be gained by putting aside differences and building a spirit of cooperation in various spheres.
Over the years, we as a nation seem to have developed some kind of sense of inferiority. There is no need for this. The girls who have brought home the glittering trophy from India have proved we are capable of achieving a great deal. Sadly, unlike these privileged pupils, most children in the country do not have the opportunity to shine. They are held back by a discriminatory system of education and the failures of governments to deliver the meaningful education all citizens have a right to. This of course is particularly true in the case of women, who still often have to overcome immense odds in order to gain literacy and learning. Offering them this could help us achieve a great deal. The vision that can lead towards this needs to be built, so that further prizes in events that test ability and intellect can come our way. |
Mohammed Abbasi 