Muslims in Taj City wake up for education

A Year-long Series on Education, Sponsored by The Aligarh Forum : – A Mirror on our Efforts, our Successes & our Shortcomings ; Stories of triumphs, tribulations and struggles of the Indian Muslims in improving their educational status, in illiteracy alleviation, and in their professional and social uplift.

By TCN Special Correspondent,

Lucknow: City of Taj Mahal—Agra gives message of love to the whole world. Famous for its heritage Mughal period buildings, forts and the wonder Taj Mahal, it is slowly waking up to the importance of education.

Muslims constitute nearly 15 percent of the total population of Agra. Most of them are engaged in small time occupations as shoe manufacturing units, leather industry, handicrafts as stone art etc. Usually these Muslim families do not have access to modern education and rely on government schools. The UP government runs primary schools under its department of education. Presently a programme ‘Education for All’ is being run in the whole state where the primary schools (Class I-V) are encouraged to enroll more students in their area.

Taj Mahal from inside Shahjahani Masjid

Going by the figures available with the district education office of Agra, the Muslim families who are lagging behind in the society and underdeveloped have realised the importance of education. The numbers of Muslim children being enrolled in the primary classes at government
schools in Agra has seen a rise compared to previous year.

Agra has 17 development blocks in the district. The number of Muslim children enrolled in the primary classes in most of the blocks has seen a rise of nearly 3000 students.

If we elaborate the details, in the academic year 2010-11 a total of 19280 Muslim children were enrolled in all the 17 blocks of the district in government primary schools. In 2011-12 the number has seen a rise of nearly 3000. The maximum increase in enrollment is in block Achnehra where 1500 new Muslim children have been enrolled.

The details are as under:

(Source: District Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan office at Agra. With inputs from local journalist—Akhil Dixit)