The Hindu : Changing face of Pune schools

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Friday, Aug 22, 2003

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Changing face of Pune schools

By Jyoti Punwani

The Muslim community has broken the traditional monopoly over academic merit.

FAR AWAY from neighbouring Mumbai's bomb blasts, a radical change is taking place in Pune, often referred to as the `Oxford of the East'. The Joshis, the Gadgils and the Abhyankars who glittered atop the State Secondary School Certificate (SSC) Board merit lists for generations, are being replaced by the Ansaris, the Mistrys and the Karigars. These are not children of the old Muslim elite, but are second, or even first, generation learners.

This year's topper, Wajeda Karigar, lives in a slum with her parents, brothers, their brood and their sewing machines. The only one among four children to continue studying after school, Wajeda would rise every morning at 4.30 a.m. to be able to get two hours of study, uninterrupted by the blaring music from the neighbours' homes.

Surprisingly, even educationists in Pune are unaware that Wajeda is fifth in an unbroken line of Board toppers from the same institution: the Anglo Urdu High School. Three of her four predecessors are girls; all but one of them wear black burqas. They not only topped their district but also stood first among the girls from all over Maharashtra.

So how did the country's educationally most backward community break the Pune Brahmins' century-old monopoly over academic merit? How did a 70-year-old Urdu school overtake some of the country's most prestigious educational institutions?

It did not happen overnight. Wajeda's success came after 16 years of continuous effort by the head of a trust which runs the school to prove to his community that it is as gifted as any other, and that if it puts its heart to it, no one can stop it from excelling.

P.A. Inamdar, who took over as chairman of the Haji Gulam Md. Azam Educational Trust in 1983, has little time for what he describes as his community's "persecution complex". He prefers instead, to draw his community's attention to B.R. Ambedkar's triumph over poverty, educational backwardness and centuries-old prejudice, all of which he characterises as handicap faced by most Indians, not Muslims alone. What characterises Muslims, rues Mr. Inamdar, is a complete lack of drive because they have been conditioned to believe that the system is against them.

Changing this mindset is Mr. Inamdar's mission. So in the sprawling Azam complex, Mr. Inamdar and his colleagues think of ever-newer ways to hunt out the brightest sparks in their community and prevent their potential going waste due to lack of self-confidence.

Convincing students that poverty cannot come in their way; challenging them to top the merit list; selecting the brightest for special training by guest teachers; pointing out that they are heirs to a centuries-old tradition of knowledge which began with the Vedas are just some ways in which Mr. Inamdar's team aims to turn "our children into assets, not liabilities, the way other communities have".

In 1994, the first girl from the Anglo Urdu School figured in the Board merit list. In 1997, Tanveer Maniar, the child of school teachers in Sholapur (part of the Pune division), topped the entire State's Board (this year, he won a gold medal in engineering). From 1998 onwards, the Anglo Urdu School's students have held sway.

It is interesting to look at the fallout of this shift. As has happened with all other gradual changes within the Muslim community, this too has been ignored by the mainstream press. A few Pune academics welcome it, though they ask whether "mastery over learning techniques equals mastery over knowledge." But most reactions range from the dismissive ("it is to compensate for the loss of the Babri Masjid"), to the suspicious ("let an Urdu examiner from outside Maharashtra revaluate the toppers' papers so that the mischief can be nipped in the bud"), and the envious ("they should have shared their method with all the schools").

Mr. Inamdar has relied on the foolproof nature of the SSC Board results to convince his community that no examiner can deny a deserving Muslim student the marks due to him/her. The cycles gifted by the local Shiv Sena unit at special felicitation functions to toppers Zarine Ansari, Sadiqa Ansari, Bilal Mistry, Majida Roghangar and Wajeda are testimony to his belief.

Indeed, none of these students would have made it to the top had it not been for the contribution of Hindus. Mr. Inamdar makes it a point to declare that teachers from RSS-run schools have not only come whenever invited, as guest teachers for his special Merit List batch, but have also taught his students diligently. Most exciting is the impact on this generation. Already, one of them has convinced her parents to turn down an offer of marriage because she wants to pursue a career in medicine. Mr. Inamdar's sight is now set on hand-picking the poorest and brightest Muslim students from all over Maharashtra, and getting them to live on his campus as they prepare for the medical and engineering entrance exams. As this "Scholars' Batch" practises public speaking after a pre-dawn exercise session (separate for boys and girls) which kicks off their day, Mr. Inamdar exhorts them that the luxuries of late mornings and long holidays are not for them, for they have a backlog of 10 generations to overcome.

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