By M.R. Karim, TwoCircles.net,
Hyderabad: Father of Sheikh Alaeem and Farhan is no more and their mother is forced to work as daily wage labourer in the Kishan Bagh locality of Hyderabad; while little Farheen Sultana is a daughter of an auto-driver. The adverse economic conditions of three might have forced them to go have no education at all, or at best, they would otherwise go to understaffed government run schools. Thanks to the efforts of some concerned Indian expatriates, they too can have quality education at private run schools, closer to their homes.
Seikh Farhan and Sheikh Aleem
After successfully running an international standard school in the City of Nizams, and colleges of media, engineering and management in Uttar Pradesh; US based Indian Muslim Relief & Charities (IMRC) has taken upon themselves to reach out to the students belonging to the lowest strata of the society.
With the vision of ‘quality education accessible to all’, IMRC has launched three pilot Indo-US Schools this school year in underprivileged neighborhoods of Hyderabad – Kishan Bagh, Shaheen Nagar and Hafez Baba Nagar, with the goal to complete 100 schools in the next five years.
Farheen Sultana
IMRC also runs other institutions such as Challenger International School, a girls’ orphanage in Hyderabad and Jahangirabad Educational Trust Group of Institutions in Uttar Pradesh.
Manzoor Ghori, Executive Director of IMRC, who is originally from Hyderabad says, “On the face of it, there are a number of schools all over the city including underprivileged inner city neighborhoods. However, many of them are substandard quality education. The few schools that provide quality education charge exorbitant fees that make it unaffordable to the poor.”
IMRC saw the opportunity to build quality, but affordable schools that could provide standard education that is accessible to all, including the poorest of the poor.
Riaz Shaikh, Project Manager for the project states that while they will be concentrating on the quality of education, they will also ensure that the fees are affordable and the schools are situated in inner city neighborhoods where the students live, thus reducing the need for transportation, an obstacle many poor students face when attending school.
The Indo-US schools will focus on book learning and take a holistic approach with the ABC’s of education – academics, behaviour and character.
Since profit is not the objective for IMRC, they are willing to invest more into hiring qualified teachers who are dedicated and passionate about teaching. Riaz Shaikh explains, “We can afford to keep these teachers motivated through proper compensation without placing financial burden on the students and their parents,” adding that they plan to have special training for teachers as well.
IMRC is confident that the quality and affordability will promote itself without any expense; hence, have not allocated any budget in marketing, publicity or advertisement.
For logistics, infrastructure, process and organization of these schools, IMRC collaborated with Mustaffa Sheriff’s Krishnaveni Talent Schools (KTS)which successfully runs over 200 schools in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
Based on the successful model of KTS, IMRC is able to start one school as well as have an annual expense of Rs twenty lakhs. The project is aimed at being self-sustaining so it can reach out to large number of students with the hope to break even in five years’ time.
At full capacity, each school will have over 400 students. The three schools together already have over 200 students and management is confident that by next session, more students will enroll. In the next five years, they aim to reach out to at least 40,000 students.
Indian Muslim Relief & Charities (IMRC – http://www.imrcusa.org) is a US based non-profit organization that began in 1981 and help run several programs throughout the country in partnership with over 100 organizations in India. Besides running schools and colleges, they have been at the forefront of providing immediate relief to affected victims of the 2014 Kashmir Floods, 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots, 2012 Assam riots, and other natural/man-made calamities.