Almost every country, which is economically well established and is

said to be cultured and civilised, has its own educational system

based on principles and policies it may have adopted to achieve its set
goals. The nature of such goals differs with different countries, some
goals may be purely political, some may be social and economic and
other may be of miscellaneous nature with no specific purpose. And
this last type of goals is generally adopted by such servile nations
which have no independent existence of their own, and which donnot
have the freedom to formulate the educational policies of their choice.
The countries which are conspicuous in respect of economic and
scientific Advancement and are strong enough politically usually
impose their policy structure on other nations which have meagre
resources and are more or less indebted to them.

 The present day education which is claimed to be democratic and pragmitic in

nature, is said to have its roots in the Greek soil. Our education, by and large, has
been styled under the influence of the west; although of Western system of education
has been raised on the foundations laid by Greek, philosophers. In such system an
aristocratic spirit seems to be dominant. The society is stratified into social groups on
the basis of birth, rank and prestige; where each social group is dealt with distinctly
and with noticeable discrimination. There is no uniformity in the type of education
provided to such groups or classes of people. The aristocratic class is kept isolated
from the common folk and so the curriculum also differs. The education in such a
split up society is not accepted as a universal need, probably on an erroneous plea
that all men are not equal and therefore are not fit to receive the same type of
education and training. The higher types of education and training are earmarked
only for such classes of people who are believed to be potential. The man made
racial discrimination in the forced social stratification, characteristic of the countries
where the class system exist, is condemned outright in the Holy Quran.

 Islam reflects that all human beings are equal in qualities

as well as in dignity; so they should be trated equitably.
The racial and tribal differences, which are a natural
outcome of multiplied human race, exist only for the sake
of identification and not for differential treatment. The
wealth and property holdings should not be considered as
a criterion for venerating the rich and strong and
disregarding the poor and week. The real grace and
greatness of man consist in his piety and devotion to
Allah and to His creatures and not in his prosperity and
prestige.

 The westerners, who were once the staunch followers of the Greek
ideology, have deviated from their conventional creed in view of the
worlds enormous progress in science. Their approach in education has
become entirely empirical as against transcendental. It is perhaps before the
middle of the nineteenth century that education has been made some what
liberal. And the scientific bias given to education dates somewhere in the
end of the nineteenth century.

The remnants of the Greek influence are still visible in the existing
educational trend of the west. They hardly favour universality of the
education in its sense. It is so because teaching is still considered as a
menial service intended to earn a poor living. The oriental nations, who
seem to have ignored their past and undervalued their own rich intellectual
heritage, have not only morally supported the educational theories of the
west, but have adopted them as their own with pride.

 The Western educationists believe that the scientific approach

is the only process of human endeavor towards truth; they
think it is not possible to attain anything like absolute truth or
the ultimate reality. Science has become a matter of faith with
them and is being worshipped as a god. Education which
responds to the requirements of nature, as presumed by them,
is that which is based on science alone. So the educational
policies today are oriented purely for economic and material
ends; while the sublime and spiritual aspects of education has
been ignored altogether. The total development of human
personality is sacrificed for a partial material gain.

 There is no doubt science has afforded tremendous facilities which

have made life on the earth mechanically easy and time saving; and
in view of its strong and permeative influence its application and
effects cannot be separated fromlife and its activities, nor such
separation will ever be desirable. But if one looks at the dark side of
this demon of science, in the shape of nuclear war material, one is
frightened to find its fatal and long styanding torturing effects and
feels that life has become absolutely risky and insecure. Unless the
supreme ideal of education, which envisages the moral and spiritual
aspects of man, is stressed, persued and developed alongwith its
ancillary objectives, the process of education cannot be called as
comprehensive and consummate.

 Education, although, is a common and essential

concern of the entire humanity, the different nations
adopt different aims and ideologies and plan and
process education in varying ways. Let us then
review those outstanding objectives which have
been persued in then past and which have provided
ground for the formation of the modern theories and
practices, to know how far do they reconcile with of
differ from what is demanded by nature and which is
envisaged in the holy Quran.

One chief aim of education has been held as training

for citizenship. This aim is obviously narrow and
restricted, for it relates only to the civic rights and
responsibilities. Within the purview of this aim there is
no scope for the development of the self which is the
natural human need. Some educationist have emphasized
the development of the moral self of the child; they are of
the view that pedagogy is an art for making man ethical.
This seems to be a partial view, because moral
development alone does not cover the complete
development of man.

 Some other educationists of the nineteenth century have taken a little liberal view of education
and have justly admitted the broad fact that sound education must attempt at developing pure
and hole personality of an individual; but they have not specified the suggestions as to how to
organize education to yield such a desirable objective. Still others have outlined a vague aim of
education, saying that the function of the education is to maintain the common qualities of man
and develop them to the highest degree. What these common qualities are and what that highest
degree is to which those qualities need to be developed, have not been determined. More
modern educationist, believing in the pragmatic philosophy of education, hold that the aim of
education should be to provide means for maintaining the social continuity of life, but they have
again confied the scope of education only to the development of social aspect of human life.
Since this social development revolves round individual family wellbeing and is intended to
improve the family conditions economically and socially, no such education can ever satisfy the
comprehensive need of man. Certain educationists of the present century, with a wider vision
and deeper thinking, who seem to be alive to the limitations of the pragmatic education, have
denounced even the advanced systems of education which are predominantly scientific and
seemingly rich in social and economic aims and methods of achievement, but are seriously
lacking in the techniques by which the true aim of education could be realized.

 From the above review it could be judged that whatever be the

system of education, it is not capable of giving insight into the
inward human potentialities, affording necessary and full
facilities and opportunities for the training and development of
the physical and intellectual faculties, an individual human
being is naturally gifted with, and helping to exploit them
judiciously, no system will be successful in achieving what the
educationists may be researching into and what they feel is still
wanted. The truth is that man has a super self in him and that
super self is the spiritual self, which if is lost sight of or is left
undeveloped, no development can be said to be natural and
complete.