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Sikh Education

The key to our Future

In Punjab, Sikhs study in Christian Missionary Schools and outside of Punjab, Sikhs are a small minority that doesn’t get a say in what’s taught in schools. But Sikhs are waking up to the need of educating children with Sikhi in mind. Education was shown much importance by our Guru Sahibans, lost to our parents and is finally being renewed for our children.

Educating our children was something our Guru Sahiban always encouraged and lead by example. Guru Angad Dev Ji created the Gurmukhi script and taught it to people that otherwise would never be able to receive education, so they also can have a brighter future. Guru Gobind Singh Ji was not only very well educated but also made sure his sons were educated. The Sahibzada’s were educated in the religious texts, philosophy and history, and had training in the martial arts such as riding, swordsmanship, gatka and archery. It was only because the Sahibzada’s were so well educated they could make such big sacrifices for faith at such a small age. Today we are unable to make the same sacrifices until much later age or make them at all in most cases and that is because over time we lost the importance of education.

First it was the hard conditions in which Sikhs lived that put education on the back burner and then it was our own ignorance. It was easy to be a Sikh at the time when we were openly attacked for being Sikhs because it gave us motivation to fight back and keep our religion. So though, we lost education we didn’t lose our religion. But over time the direct attacks decreased dramatically and indirect attacks began. Fake ‘Babas’ were introduced into Sikhi, our holy texts changed; our saroop made into a joke and the list goes on and on. These attacks have been successful to the extent that today we have Sikhs weary from taking Amrit and make fun of those that do because they don’t think it is important. The only way to fight back these attacks and revive the Khalsa Panth is by focusing on education.

Schools focused on offering Sikh education alongside regular education are slowly beginning to crop up around the world. These schools empower our children with the strength they need to live life in the real world while being a Sikhi. Our children learn how to tell the difference between what real Sikhi is and what has been added in to break Sikhi. They learn how to fight for our rights to follow our religion, so no one can push them around or make them feel anything but pride to be a Sikh. Most importantly they learn how to center their lives around Guru Granth Sahib Ji; so no matter what hard times they face, they face them with a smile. Sikh Schools are leading the way back to Guru Granth Sahib Ji for our younger generation.

One such school is Dasmesh Academy that is opening its doors to students of United States starting next year. The school is being opened in a closed Christian school in Indiana. This school will offer education that meets the standards of Indiana School Board, promotes living a Sikh life style and has a sports program that caters to all students. This school is unique in the fact that it is the only Sikh school of its kind outside of Punjab that offers living accommodations. The hope is to be able to educate any child regardless of where they live in United State if they have the desire. To make this school a reality by next year as planned, we need to donate and then donate some more. This school is not being started by a big committee or someone with lots of money; it’s started by middle classes people for everyone. Let us support their effort. You can call Balbir Singh Ji at 317-702-5051 or email at ‘americangurdwaraconcil@gmail.com’ for more information and to donate.

Also please watch out for another article in coming weeks for more information on the school. And remember donate, donate (not just your money but your ideas, too) because without them, Sikh Schools will just be a dream.

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Sikh Education

The key to our Future

In Punjab, Sikhs study in Christian Missionary Schools and outside of Punjab, Sikhs are a small minority that doesn't get a say in what's taught in schools. But Sikhs are waking up to the need of educating children with Sikhi in mind. Education was shown much importance by our Guru Sahibans, lost to our parents and is finally being renewed for our children.

Educating our children was something our Guru Sahiban always encouraged and lead by example. Guru Angad Dev Ji created the Gurmukhi script and taught it to people that otherwise would never be able to receive education, so they also can have a brighter future. Guru Gobind Singh Ji was not only very well educated but also made sure his sons were educated. The Sahibzada's were educated in the religious texts, philosophy and history, and had training in the martial arts such as riding, swordsmanship, gatka and archery. It was only because the Sahibzada's were so well educated they could make such big sacrifices for faith at such a small age. Today we are unable to make the same sacrifices until much later age or make them at all in most cases and that is because over time we lost the importance of education.

First it was the hard conditions in which Sikhs lived that put education on the back burner and then it was our own ignorance. It was easy to be a Sikh at the time when we were openly attacked for being Sikhs because it gave us motivation to fight back and keep our religion. So though, we lost education we didn't lose our religion. But over time the direct attacks decreased dramatically and indirect attacks began. Fake 'Babas' were introduced into Sikhi, our holy texts changed; our saroop made into a joke and the list goes on and on. These attacks have been successful to the extent that today we have Sikhs weary from taking Amrit and make fun of those that do because they don't think it is important. The only way to fight back these attacks and revive the Khalsa Panth is by focusing on education.

Schools focused on offering Sikh education alongside regular education are slowly beginning to crop up around the world. These schools empower our children with the strength they need to live life in the real world while being a Sikhi. Our children learn how to tell the difference between what real Sikhi is and what has been added in to break Sikhi. They learn how to fight for our rights to follow our religion, so no one can push them around or make them feel anything but pride to be a Sikh. Most importantly they learn how to center their lives around Guru Granth Sahib Ji; so no matter what hard times they face, they face them with a smile. Sikh Schools are leading the way back to Guru Granth Sahib Ji for our younger generation.

One such school is Dasmesh Academy that is opening its doors to students of United States starting next year. The school is being opened in a closed Christian school in Indiana. This school will offer education that meets the standards of Indiana School Board, promotes living a Sikh life style and has a sports program that caters to all students. This school is unique in the fact that it is the only Sikh school of its kind outside of Punjab that offers living accommodations. The hope is to be able to educate any child regardless of where they live in United State if they have the desire. To make this school a reality by next year as planned, we need to donate and then donate some more. This school is not being started by a big committee or someone with lots of money; it's started by middle classes people for everyone. Let us support their effort. You can call Balbir Singh Ji at 317-702-5051 or email at 'americangurdwaraconcil@gmail.com' for more information and to donate.

Also please watch out for another article in coming weeks for more information on the school. And remember donate, donate (not just your money but your ideas, too) because without them, Sikh Schools will just be a dream.

I have been to punjab on numerous occasions, I saw lots of public and sarkari schools but not many chirstian missionarry schools. What area do they have a predominace in (Punjab area - dist. / city)

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I have mostly been in jhalandar area and all my cousins and all the other kids whose parents could afford it, they went to christian schools. Public schools were mostly for poor childran whose parents could not afford to send them to private schools. the education of public schools in india is not the best.

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Guest iPhoneSingh

Three tiera of schoolin in india:

ICSE Board - high level education and graduare from such schools will have higher knowledge than other boards. Christian based schools have this system. St joseph, st francis, sacred heart etc they r known as convent school.

CBSE Board - Second level course system, still considered good but not as good as icse. Schools such as DAV (hindu), sri guru harkrishan public school and countless others run cbse system.

Punjab Board - well good luck in your future. Runs the lowest and has the worst rating because all rural public schools run this system and we know how good they are..

First two are expensive and hard to get in and they teach christian principles such as their daily prayer "our father in heaven" in morning and church services. Icse and Cbse operates from their HQ in delhi while pb board runs from punjab. Only well to do families send their kids to these schools. A farmer owning a 2 acre land and lives in village simply cannot afford sending their kid to such schools no matter how bright they are.

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I have mostly been in jhalandar area and all my cousins and all the other kids whose parents could afford it, they went to christian schools. Public schools were mostly for poor childran whose parents could not afford to send them to private schools. the education of public schools in india is not the best.

Phen Ji,

My ancestors are from SBSN (Nawanshahar), so same area roughly i.e Doaba. I think you may be from US/ Canada because public school in UK and also India (as it was part of the empire), are the most prestigous schools. (Private schools). You have too pay school fees.

What you may have confused public school is with state schools in UK and sarkaari / Govt. schools in India. In UK there are good standards but the Govt. scools in India which are free are for the poor who can't afford it, an incentive is the small kids get energy boosting biscuits for nutrition for lunch everyday. Most are in pinds (villages) and are attended by the poor and migrent workers (bhayias) children.

There are only a handful of christian public (private schools) in Punjab. More predominant are Sikh and Hindu. There are even more private enterprises such as shivalik public school (where lots of my far relatives went).

These schools are run as businesses, so I don't think Christian public schools, be on a mission to convert people such as Sikhs, Hindhus. As parents will then stop sending there children there as the parents would not want that, just a good education not a new religion for their kids.

It's like in the west like most UK born, I attended assembly and sang the hymns, even performed in the nativity plays. But there was never any conversion imposed on us, instead our religions and festivals were celebrated.

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