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Faizabad
and Barabanki are backward districts of U.P. where large
number of children does not go to schools. They work on
petty jobs engaged by their own parents. Illiteracy and
poverty dominate the region, supporting and reinforcing each
other.
In the year 1999, three Muslim
organizations of Faizabad, realizing the damage being done,
decided to do something in this regard, in rural areas. An
experiment began in the same year, with the establishment of
three primary schools. The villagers supplied the space, and
some Muslims supported the salary of teachers. The schools
became a success, and the years ahead saw opening of more
schools one after the other. The villagers and other well
wishers joined the movement gradually. Donors emerged where
no one was prepared to talk about education, and an urge for
education awakened in areas, which were virgin from this
aspect. The project encountered some setbacks too, but the
schools grew.
Now, within a span of six years, 23
schools have been established, providing qualitative
religious and modern education to more than 3329 students in
this region. These schools do not discriminate between
religious groups. Large number of non-Muslims students and
teachers are part of these schools. Teaching of Holy Qur’an,
Islamic studies and Urdu is compulsory for Muslim students,
with some basic grounding in Mathematics, Science,
Geography, Hindi and English.
Numerous observers have found the
schools ahead in teaching standards than many other
government or private schools of the areas. The movement in
fact, has clearly demonstrated that intelligence is not the
hegemony of urban folks. The children in rural areas, victim
of parent’s negligence and apathy, have been found to be
equally intelligent and hardworking.
Unfortunately more than 15% students in all these schools
come from extremely poor families. These children are
sponsored by generous persons, who adopt a child by paying
Rs. 1000/- per annum for his education, books and uniform
etc. We thank these sponsors for their kindness because if
such children remain uneducated they would be destined to
live in poverty forever.
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