Name: Hamza Arshad

Roll no: 21-10569

"A Modern classroom, in the educational environment, becomes a fundamental mold for the

societies built by the values of Western Civilization. It produces purposive rationality for

taking part in economic affairs. It also produces a unique set of values cherishing individual

freedom of speech and expression. During the post-communist age, the clash of cultures and

civilizations, as they occurred in recent years in France, landed the Western societies into

rethinking the limits of their value of freedom of expression even in the class-room.”

My Point of View:

Freedom of Expression is one of the key foundations on which our society is built. Our
neighborhoods are increasingly made up of people from different communities and with different
views and perspectives, living together. For society to function as a whole we must ensure that
our foundations are based on the common values of understanding, mutual respect and tolerance.
We must identify and embrace the difference in the way we live, practice our faith or no-faith
and how we express our opinions and ideas. How we participate in dialogue and listen to each
other is the key to building a coherent society. It permits greater understanding of different views
and lifestyles and reduces harmful attitudes and prejudice from becoming entrenched.

We must stop building walls around our own communities that create safe but isolated spaces
and instead look beyond our own narrow concerns and interests, to participate as citizens in the
society in which we all live. The earlier we can begin this process the better and this is where the
education plays a vital as well as very important role. Schools, colleges and universities don’t
just teach people how to only pass exams. They also help people grow as individuals and prepare
them to be good citizens. I believe that students go to university to explore new ideas, to meet
new and different people, to become more independent not just to pass exams or study a basic
course. But they need to find support if they are part of a minority. I believe that once they have
that support they can engage more widely with others.
Like a society without walls, classrooms must be a safe place for students and staff to come
together to debate and challenge one another and equally importantly for all students to practice
their religions and beliefs. Faith and belief groups are in my view an asset to classrooms and
must be properly supported. They provide a haven where students can engage with people who
hold similar beliefs and is a platform for students to go out and engage with others even those
who hold different views. 
As a result, providing some leadership in this area. Working in collaboration with a range of
bodies including government and the education sector we have devised a set of principles that
will help address some of the issues. And at a time when there appears to be less tolerance and
acceptance of people of faith it is more important than ever that all parts of our society can
express their views, to proceed in any other way means that intolerance and divisions will
become more even extreme and entrenched.