By Rehan Ansari, TwoCircles.net,
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.
Mumbai: For educational awareness and to inform the community about the Right to Free and Compulsory Education, Anjuman Khairul Islam Primary School, Ghatkopar orgainsed an Educational Rally on Wednesday among the poorest of the poor in Mumbai.
The rally consisted of hundreds of primary students, teachers and Parent Teachers Association- PTA members covered nearly five kilometer area across huts and shelters of 8×8 Feet built on hills, homes of utmost poor and deprived class among Muslims.
Educational Awareness Rally organised by Anjuman Khairull Islam Primary Ghatkopar
Informing about the aim of the Rally, Akhtari Ilays Ahmed Shaikh, Principal of the school said, “Declining strength in vernacular medium specially in Urdu is a cause of great concern. Besides, Poor Muslims must be told about the Right to Free and Compulsory Education, to facilitate parents to admit their kids and kins to school.” We not only organized this awareness campaign but we also went door to door to understand the issues and problems of the parents, she said.
Sharing her experience of meeting with the parents, Mohsina Abdul Azeem, a teacher, identified ignorance, illiteracy, and poverty as the major hurdles in the way of education. She said, “Most of the parents do not know that today admission can be almost free and there is no need to present birth certificates at the time of admission.”
Even in this time when parents are busy running from one school to another our parents are sitting quietly at home simply because they don’t have Birth Certificate of their kids or because parents don’t have a time to ferry their kids to school, Mohsina added.
Explaining more about the RTE, Akhtari Shaikh said that Maharashtra government issued a circular instructing the schools to reserve and admit 25% of the seats at elementary level for the poor students and demanded a report about it. She said, “I think it’s too late for the government to come up with the circular at this point of time because most of the schools take admission in February and March.” She said it’s mandatory for the school not to take a single penny from the students. Leave aside donation, schools can’t charge fees, or for admission forms or brochure or any other kind of fees. She said schools now have to take the admission during the whole academic year. Earlier we were restricted to admit the students till 31st July of every Academic year.
Parents sitting outside their home and listening to the speech of teacher
Parent Mohammed Owais is very upset with the decreasing strength in Urdu medium Schools. He said, “Urdu is not only the language but our culture. It teaches the respect for elders and love for the younger. Most of the Islamic literature can also be found in Urdu language and therefore it is observed that Urdu medium students are more attached to their religion.
Teachers collecting information of kids not going to school
How to tackle the dilemma of declining enrollment in the Urdu medium schools, Akhtari Shaikh said helplessly, “To save the schools we are compelled to move towards Semi-English Pattern of Schooling whereby Science and Maths are taught in English.”
Link:
Urdu-medium enrollment: What the numbers tell us?