Man on mission to improve state of education in government schools

By Faisal Fareed, TwoCircles.net,

[This report is part of the TCN Series on Education, sponsored by The Aligarh Forum]

Lucknow: The first source of education for children living in penury is the government school. The school besides offering free education also offers other fringe benefits as mid-day meal, free uniforms and even stipend to OBCs. While some enterprising individuals go for setting up their own schools with sole mission to impart quality education, little attention is paid for improving the education status in government schools.

Marked with high drop-out rates, government schools often end up as a source for poor education level with little benefit to the students and their families. The future of the students is bleak even if they enroll themselves at the government primary school.

As this is a national phenomenon, the situation is not different in government schools in Lucknow. However, things have started to change in some areas of the city, thanks to the keen interest of an individual.
Tariq Khan, a businessman noticed the shortcomings in government owned primary schools in the capital city. With the zeal to do his bid for improving the conditions in these schools, Tariq roped in his organization Foundation for Education and Economic Development (FEED) to get to the root of the problem.

Selecting the Muslim dominated cluster of Naubasta locality in Lucknow, Tariq and other volunteers of FEED took round of 11 schools collecting details about the students and the education standards. The schools are located in Mardan Kheda, Khuda Yaar Khan, Mehdi Kheda, Naubasta, Para, Alam Nagar, Ghadi Peer Khan, Saadatganj and Top Darwaza.

As per their reports, there were more than 1067 students in these 11 schools. The drop-out rate was 15 percent. “Most of them being Muslim students as the total Muslim students were nearly 70 percent. They had several reasons for dropping out from the school. They had economic conditions which hampered their education and also the indifferent attitude of their parents,” remarked Tariq Khan.

Taking up cudgels against the drop-out rate, FEED approached the UNICEF for helping in restricting the drop-out rate in this Muslim dominated area. A proposal received support from them and efforts were on for restricting the drop-out rate.

“We do not want to end up as another forum doling out financial benefits to the students. We wanted the students and their parents to realize the importance of education,” said Khan.

Finally, the School Management Committees (SMCs) came into existence. They included parents, teachers who joined hands for running the school. “It was difficult at the onset because Muslim families from lower economic background do not realize the importance of education. There were numerous counseling sessions and meetings. Some experts were also roped in and finally the SMCs were formed in these schools,” he said.

The SMCs are an integral part of the Right To Education but seldom implemented in schools.

When the parents especially the Muslims got importance that they are also part of the school and witnessing the education from close quarter, they were more inclined towards sending their children to schools. “When we appointed those whose children were dropped out in SMCs they realized that they are important. It is not always that economic background is the only and sole reason which deters the Muslim families from sending their child to school. Often it is also the lack of any zeal for getting educated,” he said.

Finally, the results bore fruit. The state’s education department also now realizes the value of these 11 schools in Naubasta. They are now a must for senior officials during inspection. With majority being Muslims it also helps them in painting their report cards with rosy pictures for Muslims.

“We will move on and presently engaged in preparing a ground level report on Muslim girl’s education in Muslim areas of Lucknow,” claimed Tariq Khan.