Lack of schools in Muslim-majority areas in West Bengal is by design, not chance

This is the second and final part of the two-part series on the role of Faith-based organisations in West Bengal and how education facilities continue to elude Muslims in the region.

Read Part One Here: The role of Islamic faith-based organisations in the education sector in West Bengal

By Sheikh Khurshid Alam for TwoCircles.net

There are various studies that have concentrated on the social exclusion of Muslim, Adivasi and Dalit communities and related it to the low literacy rate among these communities. Such studies conclude that low literacy rate is the outcome of factors like low number of schools in areas with higher concentration of backward communities, highly unequal access to schooling institutions and acute shortage of teachers in such schools but what they are unsuccessful in informing is the reason behind low number of schools in such areas.

A study conducted by the Pratichi (India) Trust in association with UNICEF Kolkata draws attention to the fact that there are major gaps in policy and implementation of elementary education but the study fails to dig deep and identify the larger picture which could shed light on the absence of sufficient schools in the first place. Because no matter how effectively the policies are implemented in the schools, it won’t achieve the expected results if there is insufficient number of schools to implement such policies. The Pratichi study says, “…there are major gaps in the policy and implementation of elementary education which results not only in the exclusion of a large section of the population from the arena of education but also excludes them from the larger societal plane…We have seen above that in the Muslim areas child enrolment per school is much higher than in the other areas. Again, the gender gap in literacy among the Muslims is the narrowest among all communities. These clearly suggest a very high level of aspiration for education amongst Muslims.”

If the Muslim children have high level of aspiration for education, then it is important to examine the relationship between insufficiency of schools in the areas dominated by Muslim community and the accountability of the state. This article claims that the insufficiency of schools in Muslim majority areas of West Bengal is not a result of a mere gap between policy and implementation but rather a planned and structured step by the government. It has been found in the course of this study that Islamic FIOs had to wait for decades to get their educational institutions affiliated and registered without any fault of theirs. Such delay has acted as a deterrent to many other Islamic FIOs who could have promoted more and more schools if it had not been because of such delays.

This article includes 3 (three) case studies of those Islamic FIOs which are running educational institutions under various West Bengal State Boards.

CASE ONE

 

South 24 Parganas is one of the neighbouring districts of Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal. In one of the villages of South 24 Parganas, where the residents were mainly peasants and daily labourers; hence, they could not afford to send their children to nearby affluent schools, few public spirited people, under the guidance of Abul Qasim Munshi, nurtured a dream of pulling out the community from the jaws of poverty and let them lead a dignified life through education. To achieve such goal, in the year 1985, Society for Islamic Education (SIE) was registered under the West Bengal Societies Registration Act 1961. The same year SIE established Sishu Bikash Academy, a Bengali medium, co-educational school to cater to the educational needs of the poor people of the village.

When SIE approached the education department of the government of West Bengal for getting affiliation for their school, they were advised to run Madrasah and drop the idea of running a school under the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education. Abul Qasim Munshi, the founder secretary of SIE contended before the government saying that, “Madrasah, whether recognised or not, pretending itself to be the foster child of Islamic education is reluctant to provide adequate berth to science and technological education in its curricula, resulting in a miserable setback for its wayfarers to overcome the hurdles of competitive examinations in every sphere of life…We can never forward our students to the campus of our National Universities for acquiring knowledge in different branches for science and research-oriented education, unless we begin from early childhood with the right course of education.” SIE made multiple representations before the Government but their request remained unattended.

SIE invoked Article 30 of the Constitution of India and reminded the government that Minorities, whether based on religion or language, had the right to establish and administer educational institution of their choice and not of the choice of the Government. SIE’s struggle continued for 15 years and in the year 2001, Sishu Bikash Academy got affiliation as an unaided institution till class VIII from the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education. The state secured a written declaration from SIE that the said school will never seek financial help from the government in the future. Having no choice left before the management of SIE, they agreed to give the declaration in lieu of affiliation to Sishu Bikash Academy.

It is evident from the correspondence between Sishu Bikash Academy and the School Education Directorate that the government even rejected scholarships to underprivileged Muslim and SC students of Sishu Bikash Academy. The reason cited for such rejection states, ‘…as the concerned school is recognised by WBBSE…without financial assistance from government. There is no provision for granting non-recurring grant(s) in favour of such type of school.’ (Letter No. 930 G.A/OM-19/95 dated 27/03/2007) Abul Qasim Munshi brought to my notice that such arbitrary steps by the School Education Directorate could be easily challenged in the court of law but that would amount to a costly litigation where though justice would not be denied but definitely be delayed. Even though Abul Qasim Munshi had been the Public Prosecutor at the Alipore Court in Kolkata, where he had gained a lot of influential contacts through his professional standing, his tryst with the various agencies of the government in regards to the affiliation of Sishu Bikash Academy makes one realise the apathy of those FIOs who are not fortunate to have the likes of Abul Qasim Munshi in their ranks.

CASE TWO

 

Aulad Hossain Education and Welfare Trust (AHEWT) manages one of the oldest Masjid by the name of Jinnati Masjid and runs a co-educational Urdu medium school named as Aulad Hussain Islamic Academy (AHIA). Both the Masjid and the School are situated on a waqf property and the management of this property lies with the people from in and around the locality. AHIA has been in service to the students of the locality, specially the girl students since 1990, a time when the girl students of the locality did not have any other school in proximity.

Though the activities of the AHEWT goes back to the early 90s, it got formally registered in the year 2001 by virtue of a Deed of Trust before the Directorate of Registration and Stamp Revenue, Government of West Bengal. The registration of the Trust was necessary in order to get affiliation from the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education for the AHIA. AHEWT complied with all the required formalities for the affiliation process and in the year 2003 applied to the Board but the affiliation request got rejected. The management also made representation before the then Chief Minister of West Bengal but that too did not bear any result. The subsequent applications for affiliation also kept getting rejected by the authorities on one pretext or the other till 2011. “Hum musalmano pe sabse bada zulm yeh hua ki riyasati huqumat ne humarey schoolon ko ek lambey arsey tak manzoori nahi di.” (The worst injustice done to us Muslims is that our schools did not get affiliation and recognition from the state government for a long period of time); this is how Jawed Ahmed, the secretary of AHIA lamented while narrating the legal challenges faced by AWEWT.

In the meantime, AHEWT had also applied to the State Minority Commission in 2008 to recognise and bestow it with minority status but did not get any response. For two years in a row, AHEWT kept making representations but there was no reply from the State Minority Commission. AHEWT kept its struggle for minority status alive and approached the Central Minority Commission at New Delhi. Finally, in 2010 AHEWT got the fruit of its struggle and it was bestowed with minority status from the Central Minority Commission.

In 2011, West Bengal witnessed a change in the political arena and about 35 years of CPM rule came to an end with the first woman Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee. As part of her campaign promise Mamata Banerjee visited the locality and the management of AHEWT submitted a memorandum before her about their inability to secure affiliation for AHIA from the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education. She directed the M.L.A. Mr Javed Ahmed Khan to look into the matter and do the needful. Finally, in the year 2012, with the cooperation of the Chief Minister and the MLA, AHIA got affiliation from the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education for classes V to VIII and gradually in 2015 the affiliation was extended to class IX and X as well.

The interesting factor to note here is that though the school got affiliation with the state board, it was recognised as an unaided institution and in this case too, the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education secured in writing from the management of the school that the school authority shall never claim any financial assistance from the state government in future. The AHEWT is under the belief that if it claims financial assistance from the state then the school running under it will lose the affiliation and the trust its minority status.

CASE THREE

 

This case study is a little different from the previous two case studies. Case 1 and Case 2 dealt with such schools which are affiliated with WBBSE, are run by the Islamic FIOs and also have the minority status from the concerned authority but are not aided by the government of West Bengal. The instant case deals with those schools which are affiliated with WBBSE, are run by the Islamic FIOs and are aided by the government of West Bengal but they do not possess the minority status from the concerned authority.

In 1990, with the intervention of All Bengal Urdu Medium Schools Association (ABUMSA), some 101 teaching posts were de-reserved in different stages by the government and Urdu knowing non-SC & ST candidates filled the de-reserved posts. But due to various factors like resignation, retirement and death of the teachers occupying the de-reserved posts, the posts kept on becoming vacant and as per the survey conducted by ABUMSA in 2016, about 451 teaching posts under SC & ST category are vacant till date. On being asked about the future of such Urdu medium schools, Aftab Alam, President of ABUMSA, West Bengal, said that until and unless the government de-reserves the said posts again, it will remain vacant. ABUMSA has been making representations before various government bodies since 2010 but the concerned authorities are yet to take action.

ABUMSA SURVEY FINDINGS

In 2012, the Mamata Banerjee government declared Urdu as the second language in the areas where 10 % of the population was Urdu speaking. The Indian Express reported saying that the decision to declare Urdu as the second language in areas with more than 10 per cent Urdu speaking population according to 2001 Census is a move that will have far reaching consequences. ABUMSA conducted the survey of fifty-eight (58) schools in eight (08) districts of West Bengal where large number of aided Urdu medium schools existed. The survey had some alarming findings as mentioned below;

1. That the total number of students in the surveyed schools were 68,585 i.e. each school had an average of 1,182.5 students.

2. That the total number of sanctioned post in the schools was 1,268 i.e. each school should have an average of 22 teachers.

3. That the total number of existing teachers in the schools was 541 i.e. each school had only an average of 9 teachers.

4. 57% of existing sanctioned post remained vacant, out of which 35% posts belonged to the reserved category 25% to the general category.

In the light of the above mentioned survey, it can be argued that the aided Urdu medium schools are in dire need of immediate attention from the respective authorities. The Islamic FIOs running the aided schools are at a slight advantageous position in terms of ease of financial burden than their counterparts that are running unaided schools. The students studying in such aided Urdu medium schools are the worst sufferers because though they do not have to bear the expenses of the school fees and books, they end up learning very less or nothing due to unavailability of the required number of teachers.

Interestingly, all the aided Urdu medium schools do not possess the minority status certificate from the concerned department. Had such schools possessed minority status certificates then they would be exempted from following the reservation policies.

LACK OF POLITICAL WILL

The West Bengal government had no mechanism to identify the minority educational institutions of the state; therefore, it came out with a notification to identify and certify minority institutions of West Bengal. In 2008, during the CPI(M) rule, a notification was issued by Minority Affairs and Madrasah Education Department, Government of West Bengal, which provided guidelines for recognition of educational institution as Minority Educational Institution in West Bengal and it read, “Article 30 of the Constitution of India provides the right to all minorities whether based on religion or language, to establish and administer educational institution of their choice. For identification of such minority educational institution already established and are being administered as such the state government shall verify the status of such institutions in the light of norms prescribed hereunder and issue necessary certificate so that such institutions can be associated with various state-aid schemes for education intervention in minority development.”

Further, Article V of the notification titled ‘Entailment of general effects after recognition as minority educational institution’ said:

1. Reservation policy for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes shall not apply in recruitment of teachers and staff in minority educational institutions.

2. There shall be no bar for the state government to provide the financial assistance to such institution for the purpose of educational enlightenment and upliftment of the minorities.

3. Stipend/Scholarship and other such benefits may be allowed to students of such institution as per government norms.

4. There shall be no discrimination for such minority educational institution for providing other aids by the government in consonance with the spirit of article 30(2) of the Constitution of India.

After the TMC came to power, in 2012 a notification, which provided ‘Guidelines for grant of no objection certificate and minority educational institutions status certificate to a minority educational institution’, the same clauses of 2008 notification were repeated with minor amendments here and there.

Prima facie, there is no difference between the Article 30(2) of the Constitution of India and the notification issued by the West Bengal government and the notification seems to compliment the constitutional provision. But on close scrutiny it will be evident that the words of the constitution have been tweaked in such a manner that it has potential to hit the beneficiaries of the provision without any apparent attack on their rights.

The vital difference between Article 30(2) of the Constitution of India and Article V(4) of the notification by Minority Affairs and Madrasah Education Department, Government of West Bengal is that the former has used ‘aid’ and the latter has used ‘other aids’ to denote the kind of support to be provided to minority educational institutions. It is because of this difference in words that the West Bengal government did not find itself duty-bound to acknowledge aided affiliation to a number of institutions like Shishu Bikash Academy and Aulad Hussain Islamic School, who had to run from pillar to post begging for their constitutional right.

The teachers’ salary of any school consumes the major portion of the financial support. The government of West Bengal hides behind the charade of Article V(4) of the mentioned notification and deprives the minority institutions of teachers’ salaries but the same government does not fail to uphold the tokenism in the name of support for mid-day meals and petty expenses. The unaided minority educational institutions either compromise with the quality of education or gradually close down operations in the long run. A community which is kept illiterate for ages is automatically pushed towards poverty.

 

The author is a Kolkata-based lawyer