(Amrit Pal Singh ‘Amrit’)

How can we know if an institution provides good education to its students? How do we know if an institution is helping its students to be nice human beings and great citizens?

It is so easy to know. Just see the level of intelligence of its students. Just see how its students behave in their daily life. If students are getting good education, in that case their institution is good, otherwise it is not. If students behave in good manners, then their institution is good, or else it is not. It is so simple rule to know the accurate value of an institution.

If an institution is unable to provide good education to its students, no matter how many beautiful buildings this institution owns, it is a bad institution. No matter how many students an institution has, if it is failed to turn them into a well behaved good citizens, it is a disastrous institution. Beautiful buildings and a big number of students do not make an institution a great one.

To establish a great institution, we first need to adopt a proper syllabus for its students of different classes. We have to prescribe what we want to teach our students. We can teach only if we have learned those things ourselves. We can establish a great institution only if we have strong desire to do something in the service of our society.

After setting a proper syllabus for our students of different levels, we need to select good teachers who can teach our students according to this pre-set syllabus. Teachers are the backbone of any educational institution. If a person does not have a good command over a particular subject, he cannot teach it others at all. Only a well qualified teacher can teach as it should be.

A good educational institution should engage its students in different kinds of social work as well. These are called extra-curricular activities. Students should be engaged in other physical activities, like games etc as well with the intention that they stay healthy.

If a school is providing quality education to its students, they will score good marks in their examinations. The results of examinations tell us if a school is successful or not in its main mission. If results are good, the reputation of the institution will rise. If results are bad, it will give bad name to the institution.

If students perform great in their examinations, people praise their institution. If they indulge in unsocial activities and violence and do nothing good to the society, people understand that they got education from a bad institution.

The ranking of best educational institutions is decided on international and various national levels. This ranking depends on many factors, such as faculty quality, raising people up from poverty, an ethic of service to country, and scientific and humanistic research etc. It means if an institution’s performance is great, it will help it getting great rank. If students of an institution are getting quality education, it raises the rank of the institution. If an institution is giving good results, it elevates the rank of the institution. If students of an institution get jobs easily after completing their courses; it helps a lot to raise the ranking of the institution.

If an institution is failed to provide its students with quality education, if students of an institution are unable to use the education they got from their institution to fit in modern day society, if teachers of an institution incite their students to anti-social activities, if students of an institution are indulged in violence, rapes and murders, it certainly will bring bad name to the institution. No matter how teachers of such an institution talk about it, it is still a worst institution.

If an institution is really great, it does not need any advertisement or publicity to attract new students. Such an institution needs not to employ agents to bring students from other institutions. If an institute is really great, deserving students will come to it automatically.

If a student is not satisfied with his training, he will leave the institution. If he desires so, he will get admission in another institution. Even if a student is satisfied, yet he could seek admission to another institution for further education. In any case, the institute has no right to threat its former students because they left the institution.

Religions are just like institutions. A religion is supposed to provide its students with education on the Sacred. Here, religion is an institution and its followers are its students. Preachers of religion are teachers of this institution.

Good performance by an institution makes it a prestigious organisation. It is same with any religion. If an organised religion performs well in term of humanity, it becomes a respectable ideology. An institution’s performance is delivered by its students and performance of an organised religion is delivered by its followers. If students or followers doing social service and making efforts for the betterment of the society, it will bring praises for their institution or religion. If they are harming the society and humanity, they are damaging reputation of their institution or religion also.

The main goal of any religion is to guide its followers on the path of the Sacred and help them achieve their ultimate goal or salvation. If a religion is able to reach this goal, it can be called a true religion; otherwise it is a false one. In fact, if it cannot lead its followers to the God, it is not a religion whatsoever.

Reputation of an institution depends on its teaching staff. Reputation of an organised religion depends on its priestly class. If teachers of an institution or priests and preachers of an organised religion are doing their job perfectly with pure devotion, the performance of the institution or religion will surely be good. Good performance is judged on the basis of many factors, like educational/religious quality, raising people up from ignorance and poverty, and an ethic of service to the entire humanity etc.

If teachers of an institution or preachers of an organised religion are indulged in immoral activities, it certainly brings bad name for the institution or religion. If teachers or preachers are fulfilling their duty righteously, it helps establishing the reputation of the institution or the religion.

If students of an institution or followers of a religion are indulged in violence, rapes, murders and other anti-social activities, it certainly will bring bad name to the institution or the religion. No matter how teachers of such an institution or preachers of such a religion talk about it, it still will be considered a worst institution or religion. The number of students or followers has nothing to do with good reputation of an institution or a religion. It is often seen that criminal-minded people join bad institutions where not as much of strict restrictions are imposed on students, so that they could indulge in immoral activities freely. Ordinary people judge an institution from the behaviour of its students. General public judges a religion from the actions of its followers.

An institution or a religion needs not trying various methods to attract students of other institutions or followers of other religions. If an institution or a religion is successful in their objectives, other students or followers will automatically come to them. A successful institution does not need to employ agents to catch students of other institutions. A true religion does not need to employ professional missionaries seeking converts.

Often unsatisfied students leave their institution and join other institution of their choice. Often unsatisfied followers leave their religion and embrace other religion of their choice. It is so common that students or followers leave one institution or religion and join other one. A good institution that follows ethics and a true religion will never threat its leaving students or followers. Also, an institution can never force someone to be its student. It is same with a religion. No true religion will ever force someone to be its follower.

Long lasting reputation of an institution or an organised religion depends on many factors, such as what they have to offer, quality of their offering, academic level of their teachers or spiritual level of their preachers, ethics of service, and finally, outcome of their educational or spiritual training. Without a great outcome, an institution or an organised religion can never find a respectable position in this world, no matter how teachers of such an institution or preachers of such a religion talk about it.