THIS is with reference to the death threats to Dr Bernadette Dean, owing to which she had to flee Palcistan. As one of the members of the committee handling the updating of the school syllabus, I have been involved in this exercise and know the details of proposed changes.

Some religious groups, which started the hate propagandaagainsther,havenoidea ofthe changesbeingproposedin the syllabus. She is not the only person who is handling this job, there are other members of the academia who are contributing to it.

Whenever any attempt is made to bring madressah education under any state regulation, there is always a hue and cry from these religious groups, and it is called interference in religious education.

Have we ever thought why we educate our children? What are the objectives we want to achieve through this exercise? What is the ultimate goal of investing so many years for obtaining any academic credentials? The dictionary of sociology defines education as `a social institution through which society provides its members with important knowledge, including basic facts and job skills, as well as cultural norms andvalues` Being a Marxist sociologist, I even ignore Marxian conflict theory of education and talk of functionalist theory. The functionalist sociologists consider that education performs at least four basic roles: (i) socialisation, (ii) cultural innovation, (iii) social integration and (iv) social placement.

It`s time we asked: are we preparing our young generation for the above-mentioned responsibilities through education? The answer is `no`. People like Dr Dean are not posing any threat to our religious beliefs and ideology, rather they are helping us make our young generation more enlightened and tolerant so that they may become members of the global community.

Dr Riaz Ahmed Shaikh Karachi