By Zaidul Haque, TwoCircles.net,
Kolkata: “Education is the key to the development of the Muslims and we need to orient ourselves accordingly. Those who are more developed in science also tend to succeed and hence many problems of the Muslims too could be solved with education,” reverberated in a two days ‘The East & North East Educational Conference’ organized in Kolkata on October 26-27 by M M Foundation of Kolkata and Al Falah Mission of Berhampur, Murshidabad.
The conference began on 26 October at Bhasha Bhavana Auditorium, National Library, Alipore in the morning at 10.30am and continued till on 27th October, 2013. The final session of the conference was held at Kalakunja Auditorium from 9 am to 3pm, Shakespeare Sarani in central Kolkata. The title theme of ` The East & North East Educational Conference’ was “Muslim Education in East and Northeast India-Issues, Challenges and Strategies”.
Dr. P K Abdul Aziz at the conference in Kolkata.
Honorable guest of the conference Dr. Mumtaz Ahmed Khan, Founder and Chairman of Al-Ameen Group and visionary, educationist and community leader of educational revolution in Karnataka said, Muslims are backward and they have hence developed an inferiority complex, which we need to fight.
He said that Muslim in West Bengal were greatly affected after the partition of Bengal, but we cannot shun our responsibility to make awareness to learn Science and modern education. The common problem of the country is poverty, but Muslims are facing problems more due to crisis of education. If we learn Science and modern education, then we can overcome several problems, he added.
Renowned educationist, social worker and member of the Planning Commission’s for the twelfth five year plan period 2012-2017 Mr. P.A. Inamdar of Pune said, in past 60 years of after independence, Muslims have succeed gradually in crossing many hurdles.
He added that it’s the age of the internet and technology and so we need to update ourselves accordingly.
P A Inamdar at the conference in Kolkata.
Chief Guest of the conference Ex Vice Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University and current VC of Meghalaya Science and Technology University Dr. P K Abdul Aziz said that we should shun all kinds of inferiority and try to use the Right to education Act and mid-day meal schemes to our advantages.
The ex editor of Islamic Voice and BBC journalist Maqbul Ahmed Siraj said, we should appeal to all the educationists that, everyone should stress on the need to learn English language, the lingua franca of the world.
On second day on 27th October, 2013 at Kalakunja Auditorium in Kolkata Chairman of Muslim Education Society of Kerala and famous Neurosurgeon Dr. PA Fazal Ghafoor said that it’s been five years to the Sachar Commission Report, but still we see no significant changes in the status of the Muslims community.
He also applauded the initiatives of the West Bengal Government in granting reservations to the OBC Muslims, adding that they should also try to reap the benefit.
Secretary of Centre of Research and Debates in Development Policy (CRDDP) and retired IAS Syed Zameer Pasha urged on introspection within and said that we should rise above conservative mentality and should refrain from blaming others.
He urged the community leaders to encourage minority educational institutions.
The only guest from West Bengal, Editor of a Benglai daily `Kalom’ Ahmed Hassan Imran said that the situations of the community has considerably improved in last few years in the state.
For the promotion of education amongst Muslim community in the region, a nodal agency with Dr Fazal Ghafoor as convener has been appointed.
In this conference a Muslim Social Educational organization of Kolkata `Educational Support Council’ was felicitated with the Dr. Mumtaz Ahmed Khan Award. The award given to the President of the `Educational Support Council’ Muhammad Sahabuddin.
Founder Director & Trustee of Iqra Education Foundation of Mumbai Mrs. Uzma Naheed, Secretary of Shaheen Foundation of Bidar, Karnataka Abdul Qadeer, Trustee of Karimia Trust of Jharkhand Syed Ashfaque Karim, Secretary of MESCO, Hyderabad Dr. Fakhruddin Mohammed, Founder of the Millat Organisation of Bangalore and Principal of the GRV Business Managment Academy, Ganganagar Dr. S.A. Salaam Musheer also participated in the programme.