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New Lease of Life for Chennai Urdu Schools
By A Staff Writer
Chennai
Thanks to proactive measures from S.K’s Educational Academy, Chennai’s remaining Urdu schools hope to survive.
Three years ago, they presented a pathetic sight. Peeled plaster, rusted doors, dusty ambience, kids clad in tattered clothes and ill-motivated teachers. Hardly 200 students from poverty-stricken families attended the nearly 20 Urdu medium schools in Chennai. Spread all over the Chennai metropolitan area, the schools were the only residual hope for poor Muslim kids to receive free education with elite and the middle class having switched over to more market-friendly English and Tamil medium schools. Urdu medium was simply passé in Tamil Nadu, the elite had concluded. A city with huge Muslim educational bodies and a number of professional colleges, hardly ever thought of quality education of the poor. Why not just re-orient the Corporation schools was a question that bypassed their ken.
S. K’s Educational Academy stepped into the void in 2003 on urging from a sympathetic Chief Minister Jayalalithaa and adopted 10 schools in a single sweep. Things began to look up as the Academy brought in more teachers, infused discipline, repaired the dilapidated buildings, constructed toilets on a priority basis, provided blackboards and other teaching aids, and appointed field officers to improve infrastructure and performance.
Three years since, they began to set the schools in order, the students’ strength has gone up to 2000. The school in Bhogipalyam is a picture of discipline. The one in Lalghunta located in the congested, steamy by-lane of Washermanpet in North Chennai is now crammed with 800 children. It had been left with just about 35 children in 2003. Yet another school in Pulianthope has won laurels for presenting best art and craft model of Ripon Building, the seat of Chennai Municipal Corporation. The kids turn out in smart uniforms.
Introduction of English medium sections alongside the Urdu medium in the school has acted as a major boost to the declining morale of the students and the teachers alike. Part of the blame for schools’ decline was because of the Urdu medium which is almost irrelevant in Tamil-only Tamil Nadu. This has also brought in poor students from Hindu families. And kids like Shylaja, Kavitha and Selvi now also get to learn Urdu along with Tamil and English. This writer was surprised when S. Divya of 6th standard rattled off kalima and its Urdu meaning in a jiffy and Hemalatha enthusiastically showed her Urdu answer sheet with 49 per cent marks in 5th std. exam.
The moving spirit behind the change is the dynamic Dr. Syed M. M. Ameen who is out of his clinic after 2 pm to take stock of the needs and performance of the schools. Says Ameen, given the right approach, the MLAs and councillors are not averse to contributing from their funds for the betterment of the infrastructure. The Academy has raised nearly Rs. 220 lakhs from them during the three years. The money has been utilised for payment of salary of private teachers as the Corporation is currently paying for only 41 teachers while Academy is employing an additional 55 teachers.
Ameen says, “thanks to the improved infrastructure and attention, the kids now exhibit deeper attachment with the school and profound interest in studies”. Akhtari Begum of Corporation Urdu Middle School in Lalghunta says, the parents too have got active and are contributing their efforts to construct a new wing of the school. Says Aabida Begum, teacher at another school, newer incentives have worked wonders. She says, “When we witnessed that attendance was thin on Saturdays, (Friday and Sunday are holidays in Urdu schools), we added an egg in the midday meals and it worked in attracting the absentee kids.’
The Academy has also taken up courses for helpers for hospitals and nursing homes, Montessori teaching, domestic attendants, computer appli-cation, beauty parlour and health care, child care assistance, dress-making, designing and embroidery, handicrafts and toy-making for girls. The courses are run under the auspices of Tamil Nadu Board of Continuing Education.
More information can be had from: S. K. Educational Academy, 36-Jani Jahan Khan Road, Royapettah, Chennai-600014, Phone: 044-28483231, 2848328.
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