Back to the future

A nexus between the managing bodies of Urdu schools, principals and State authorities is the cause for the decline in academic levels of the se institutions. FIROZ BAKHT AHMED writes on how this process can be reversed.

SPARSELY-LIT rooms (dungeons rather), dilapidated or no structures, choked and stinking lavatories, moth-eaten furniture, dangerous fittings, unhygienic water to drink, lost teachers, unconcerned parents and meandering students are some features of the beleaguered Urdu medium schools of India. In the new millennium, apart from some 300,000 madrasas, there are around 10,000 such Urdu medium schools languishing in their ghettoised culture. They are like permanent fixtures, closed to change.

What is to be lamented is the fact that year after year their results are the same - pathetic. This year in Andhra Pradesh Boards, the result of 60 Urdu medium schools was a mere zero per cent. In Chandra Babu Naidu's "Cyberabad" itself, there are 10 schools where the result is zero per cent. The all-India level is no better, with a cumulative result of about 23 per cent. Pass percentage of Delhi over the last two decades in the Board exams of Urdu medium schools fluctuates between 20 and 27 per cent. This year it happened to be 23 per cent with many secondary and senior secondary schools touching the depths of as poor as one per cent. At Jama Masjid Boys Senior Secondary School, only one boy passed while at Matia Mahal also only one student succeeded. Girls were slightly better but cumulatively, it showed an abysmal picture with a pass percentage of only 30.

In Rajasthan and Bihar the failure rate is identical to Delhi's which is 77 per cent. If in Maharashtra and West Bengal, the result is better (about 50 per cent) it is worst in Madhya Pradesh where the pass percentage this year is just 20 per cent. A detailed analysis on the part of the Friends for Education, a platform meant for the uplift of Urdu medium schools, depicts in its yearly survey report that it is a vicious circle of intangibility and incongruity between the managing bodies, teachers and parents that is responsible for the sharp decline in the falling academic levels of Indian Muslims.

Most of the teachers teaching at these schools are found to be lackadaisical, unconcerned, dispirited and very casual regarding the onerous task of imparting education. Besides, the parents too remain detached about the education of their wards. As if this were not enough, the management bodies of already victimised and harried backward institutions act as parasites rather then rejuvenating the system. One such example is that of Bachchon ka Ghar orphanage-cum-school in Delhi's Daryaganj area, where the management receives a grant of not less than 25 lakhs, never to the benefit of the orphanage's boys or girls but to fill their coffers. One such story of the orphans' funds being bungled appeared in Delhi's widely circulated Urdu daily Rashtriya Sahara (June 12, 2001). The State has always turned a deaf ear to the travails of these hapless Urdu medium schools.

The poor students feel that their schools were completely responsible for their failure. It was also brought to light that there was a notorious nexus between the managing bodies, principals and the State authorities to annihilate these Urdu schools. Most of the schools are aided by the government. They receive a grant of 95 per cent. Five per cent is to be arranged by the managing committees which make the poor teachers run from pillar to post to collect the grant from the well-to-do of the community.

Some Muslim intellectuals and educationists like Prof. A. M. Khusro, Dr. Rafique Zakaria, Syed Hamid and Prof. Mushirul Hasan, feel that the main cause of the educational backwardness among Muslims is the lack of enthusiasm to excel in the academic field. Similarly Prof. Gopi Chand Narang, Urdu's great litterateur and critic feels that the absence of the right kind of leadership after Maulana Abulkalam Azad has resulted in the pathetic educational panorama. The so-called Muslim leaders kept diverting the real issues of Muslims from educational, social and economic upliftment to that of political ones.

The muslim intelligentsia is wholly to be blamed for this poor show in their community's schools. If this cross-section of the society had been a concerned one, a lot of improvement could have been made. But being well paid, and enjoying political patronage, the Muslim intelligentsia from right after the partition, remained completely unmindful of falling academic levels. Children belonging to all the privileged Muslim families never studied in their own Urdu schools. Rather, they opted for the missionary schools.

The rot starts in the primary sections of Urdu medium schools. The students passing out do not find seats in the middle, secondary or senior secondary schools as they hardly know to write their name. Also, there is no provision of Urdu medium in most schools. Many teachers of these Urdu schools complain that there is absolutely no follow up at home and once the ward is admitted to a school, the parents never return, not even when the child's name is struck off the rolls owing to long absence.

This is true, as many parents contacted in some of old Delhi's ghettos didn't even remember the name of the school their child was admitted to. A few members of the management of some Urdu schools felt that their wings were clipped as they had no authority to take major steps. The example is Delhi's Anglo Arabic School where, for the last couple of years, a completely dispirited, lacklustre, redundant, inefficient, incapacitated and inactive managing body has been at the helm of affairs.

Quite a few of the Urdu medium schools do not have their building and they are run under the azure skies like old Delhi's Qaumi School that has been using tents at the Eid Gah since the Emergency in 1975-76. Who's bothered? Most of these schools do not have Urdu texts in subjects like science, geography, mathematics etc. Each year it happens that the texts fail to reach the markets in time and the exams are over. Some conscientious teachers help the students by translating the matter from Hindi or the regional text. Every school has about 10-12 vacancies. Usually they remain unfilled and the history teacher takes English classes while the Chemistry teacher tries his hands at mathematics. This is a common trend.

There is hardly any Urdu school that owns a playground or sports facilities. Extra curricular activities have never been the cup of tea of most Urdu school principals. Now they have started an Urdu University in the name of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad in Hyderabad but the question is from where will it receive the raw material since most Urdu medium schools are abysmally below the standards. If this Urdu University is to succeed, Urdu schools have to be rejuvenated, uplifted, overhauled and cared for. When the all India representation of Muslims in professional courses is a paltry one (less then two per cent) this University will be a mere ivory tower for all the satiated people belonging to the various faculties.

As a minority community, Muslims cannot afford to be mediocre and spiritless. True, they should love Urdu but they must also perfect themselves in English and a regional language. There's a danger that India may prosper and its Muslim minority may remain primitive and uneducated. It is the responsibility of the Muslims to see that the community marches ahead with enlightened education. If they don't learn from the lessons of history, according to the renowned poet Iqbal, they themselves are to blame.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Features
Previous : Success is in the air
Next     : An ace up its sleeve