My answer is, ‘It really does not matter as much as we think!’ It’s easy to put the blame on a far-off abstract ministry than to bear the responsibility. The system is abstract and easy to blame! But let’s look at ourselves.

Let’s look at what we do to contribute. We do not want our children to be teachers (largely). Why? Well, not enough money! Why do they not get enough money? Because we collectively think they are not important enough.

Well, there it is – the contradiction! We need great teachers because education should be good, but then education is not important enough that teachers are well paid, and of course, our children should be well paid so they shouldn’t dream of being teachers!

Well, we reap what we sow. No minister came in to ask children to not love learning or prevented us from loving to learn and to teach that to our children.

From the multitude of individuals who believe that the system can magically make us better, comes the poor minister and the helpless ministry just a reflection of who we are.

We hate that reflection. Perhaps it’s time to reflect!

True change always starts from the individual. Our striving for being true to our work, our knowledge. The violent revolutions are all destined to fail.

The process of true change is subtle like a flower blooming; it happens, silently. Gibran says:

‘Oftentimes have I heard you speak of one who commits a wrong as though he were not one of you, but a stranger unto you and an intruder upon your world. But I say that even as the holy and the righteous cannot rise beyond the highest which is in each one of you, so the wicked and the weak cannot fall lower than the lowest which is in you also. And as a single leaf turns not yellow but with the silent knowledge of the whole tree,’

It’s time we as individuals started our own silent revolution. The only kind that brings lasting change.