Kolkata: Speaking under an open winter sky at Umeed Global School, educationist Khan Sir delivered a speech that went far beyond classrooms, examinations, or competitive success. Education today, he warned, is no longer merely about degrees or jobs — it is about perception, power, and survival. In an age dominated by technology, social media, and algorithm-driven narratives, those who control perception shape society, while those left outside modern education remain defenceless.
The audience sat wrapped in shawls and sweaters as the cold intensified. Khan Sir himself appeared visibly affected by the chill, yet he did not shorten his address. What unfolded instead was a sharp, unsettling reflection on how education determines who gets heard and who is erased.
Khan Sir on Education, Perception and Power in the Age of Technology
“Nothing today is purely right or wrong,” Khan Sir said. “Everything depends on perception — and perception is created by those who control technology.” He argued that earlier generations fought battles on streets and in courts; today, battles are fought on screens, through narratives engineered by data, language, and digital reach. Without access to this ecosystem, he said, entire communities risk permanent marginalisation.
Drawing from his own journey as a teacher, Khan Sir recalled how civil services coaching was once restricted to the wealthy, with fees running into lakhs. For children who had grown up in poverty, such barriers silently buried ambition. “A poor child who has lived poverty — not read about it in textbooks — also deserves to sit on positions of power,” he said, stressing that lived experience is not a disadvantage but a qualification.
He challenged the idea of disability itself, insisting that the greatest disability is not physical limitation but mental surrender. Citing examples of students who overcame blindness, poverty, and social stigma to succeed in the civil services, he argued that education must be designed to liberate confidence, not merely deliver information.
Khan Sir also warned against dividing education into rigid compartments — religious versus modern, spiritual versus scientific. Such divisions, he said, weaken societies. Science, technology, economics, ethics, and faith must move together, particularly for communities historically denied access to institutional power. “Hope alone is not enough,” he said. “We have hoped for decades. Now we need institutions.”
How Umeed Turned Slum Children into Confident Speakers in Seven Years
As he spoke, the students of Umeed Global School quietly became the most powerful counter-argument to despair. One after another, children took the stage — speaking fluent English, Arabic, Urdu, and Hindi, anchoring the programme confidently, performing without hesitation, and engaging the audience with ease. Their confidence was not rehearsed for a night; it reflected years of preparation.
The ease on stage had a long backstory. Umeed Global School may have begun only last year, but its foundation lies in Umeed Academy, which started in 2018 with just three students. At the time, its founder Wali Rahmani was himself a teenager. Working with a small, committed team, he helped design an intensive 12-hour daily syllabus for children largely drawn from slums and underprivileged neighbourhoods.
The idea was radical in its simplicity: do not dilute education for poor children. Instead, strengthen it. Combine language, discipline, moral grounding, and academic rigour — and give students the time and attention they are usually denied. Over the last seven years, the results have quietly accumulated, culminating in an annual day that felt less like a performance and more like a declaration.
Khan Sir, despite the cold, stayed back to watch the entire programme.
Abdul Qadeer on Why Education, Not Ceremony, Builds the Future
Later in the evening, Abdul Qadeer of the Shaheen Group of Institutions addressed the gathering, placing Umeed within a larger historical context. He described institutions like Umeed as the fulfilment of a long-held dream — spaces where modern education and moral values coexist, producing not just achievers but contributors.
Recalling his own early struggles, Abdul Qadeer spoke of beginning with little more than belief, often facing ridicule and doubt. Today, the Shaheen Group educates tens of thousands of students. The journey, he said, reinforced one lesson: societies do not rise through speeches or slogans, but through sustained investment in education.
He urged families to rethink social priorities, openly criticising excessive spending on weddings and ceremonies while education remains underfunded. “Spend less on one night,” he said, “and more on a lifetime.” Education, he emphasised, must extend beyond one’s own children to include those standing at the margins.
As the night wore on, the cold deepened, but the audience remained seated. What held them was not comfort, but conviction. At Umeed, education is not treated as charity or symbolism; it is treated as strategy. In a time when perception decides power, that strategy may be the most quietly transformative act of all.
