Muslims and Education

Plight of Muslim Students in Chennai


It is admission time and hundreds of deserving and meritorious Muslim students in Chennai and its outskirts are flocking to the houses of individual philanthropists in the city for monetary assistance. The fees for the admissions in professional colleges and Self-Financing (SFS) courses are touching heavens. Most Muslim parents are self-employed and raise barely subsistence level incomes. This leaves them hardly any disposable incomes to fund the courses like BE, B.Arch, B.Pharmacy, B.Ed., BBM/BBA, BCA, MCA etc in SFS institutes. The general stream BA, B.Sc and B.Com barely hold any appeal for meritorious students who aspire to be professionals.


Normally any such diplomas or degree courses require Rs. 30,000 towards fees, transport, uniforms (if any) and textbooks annually. Parents with income levels ranging between Rs. 60,000 to Rs. 70,000 simply cannot afford these expenses. And those above these levels can afford this only at the cost of incurring debts, which could be had only after mortgaging their valuables or properties. Often this is a dicey proposition as parents reserve these assets to fall back upon when there is a serious emergency (sickness or marriage of girls) in the family.


Professional courses are now available for asking. Those who can afford, could have it by paying the market rates in any college. But for Muslim aspirants from poor families with high scores the only option is to look for private donations or be resigned to their misfortune of missing out opportunity for higher as well as professional education. Be it industries, trading houses, hospitals, media, banks, financial institutions, schools and college or any other professional institutions, services are getting reserved for those with expertise and degrees from reputed institutions. Fate of a community without a professional base could only be guessed.


Most Chennai Muslims feel their ancestors were visionaries who set up a lot many schools and colleges. But times have changed. Muslim institutions do not offer the wide spectrum of courses and meritorious students need to be coached and trained in specialized institutions which offer better prospects of campus selection. Market driven forces have made this possible. Hence the need to alter the priorities in the changed context of time.


A group of women have been trying to fill the void by organizing scholarships from private individuals. But they say their hands are tied as demand far surpasses the available resources. Moreover, they realize that involvement of the entire community is essential and imperative at this hour. Individual efforts could not be a substitute for institutions. They say they have been wistfully watching Muslim community organizing the charities and holding scholarship melas for higher education in Bangalore and Hyderabad during the last few years. But Chennai is still lagging behind. Meritorious candidates have to knock at several doors to gather the needed resources. Their desperation and sorrow is seen to be believed. The situation could be remedied only by putting in place an institution which operates out of a definite address and has recognizable individuals. The situation begs everyone’s attention in Chennai. Unless the Chennai Muslims pool their resources, fix benchmarks for merit and fund allocations, lay down norms for channelisation of funds, set a network of people for scrutinizing the candidates, they fear the task will remain unattended.


There is a serious need for setting up more hostels in Chennai for Muslim boys, girls and even for working men and women. Millions of rupees are being spent on ‘Peace exhibition’ and ‘Faith Conference’ by philanthropists, which are just passing affairs. But no serious effort has been initiated in the city during the last few decades to address the development needs of the community.

June July is the stressed filled months for many parents as they are very anxious and worried about the admission in professional courses and the payment of fees.


Higher education is becoming expensive every year. A decent middle class family is also finding it extremely difficult to afford the fees of the professional courses. Even those who have never experienced financial crunch are also finding difficult to pay the fees.


With the proliferation of the private professional colleges and government lifting its hand from the responsibility of providing subsidised higher education, the fees are in the range of six figures. Amidst these developments the last straw is the current decision of few educational and welfare Trusts in Mumbai not to give scholarship to the new students this year because of the resource crunch.


Three major Educational and welfare Trusts in Mumbai have stopped giving scholarship to the deserving students. Hundreds of students are struggling to search alternative source as the deadline for fee payment is expiring. Many have already missed the deadlines and their admission has been cancelled. Others have accepted the less expensive options -sacrificing their first choice. The flow of community funds towards education was growing steadily over the last couple of years. But last year showed the focus shifting away from education towards the healthcare.


The demand is more for the higher education than the supply. Also keeping in mind the changing profile of the industries and job market lots of innovations are required in the higher education sphere. Since government has stop investing in higher education, it is imperative for the community to invest in creating institution of higher learning and institution of excellence.


Other minority communities are heavily investing in higher education and creating huge infrastructure. It is benefiting their community as 50 % seats are reserved for the minority managing the institution. Other reasons why the focus is shifting away from the education is the investment in establishing exclusive Islamic schools. Ironically in Mumbai, five Islamic schools have been established catering to upper middle class, but number of Urdu medium municipal schools catering to deprived section closed in the last two years because of lack of community attention.


One of the alternatives can be micro-finance. The movement began nearly 30 years ago with Muhammad Yunus, founder and managing director of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, which so far has provided $5 billion in loans to four million people. Since then, similar networks of microfinance institutions (MFIs) have sprung up around the world.