Introduction

Faizabad and Ayodhya twin cities situated on the bank of the river Ghaghra. It is educationally backward district of U P. Large number of children do not go to school here. They work on petty jobs engaged by their own parents. Encountering misery at large scale in these areas, three educational societies of Faizabad, working in cohesion, conducted educational and economic survey of Muslims in the urban and rural areas of Faizabad, in 1998. The survey revealed in black and white what the management of societies had already suspected. Illiteracy and poverty were dominating the community completely, supporting and reinforcing each other. The damage was being done at a furious pace, with an intensity no outside enemy could match.  Something was required to be done, quickly and efficiently, to check this continuous slide.

An interesting experiment in

Faizabad the ‘Faizabad Literacy Project’

At almost the same time, ‘American Federation of Muslims of Indian Origin’ or AFMI, declared their intention in its Annual Award Function at Aligarh, to help Indian Muslims achieve a goal of 100% literacy within a span of 10 years. Encouraged by the resolve, the Faizabad societies sent their survey reports to them. With these reports, a suggestion was also forwarded for establishing a network of ground level basic schools in Muslim dominated rural areas. The idea was to form a backbone of the movement for eradication of illiteracy. In some of these areas, basic schools in the form of Madarsas did exist, providing the basics of religious education but their pathetic condition was no one’s secret.

The proposal suggested that people of the area would be asked to provide space for these schools. Salaries and remaining expenses of school would be met through the fees realized from students, and educational expenses of the poor would be realized through a Sponsorship Scheme that existed at the society, Faiz-e-Aam.

AFMI agreed to the proposal with a condition. It promised to provide the salary for two teachers per school, for some initial years only. The schools were expected to become self-sustaining after this period. The societies accepted the challenge, and Faizabad Literacy Project was launched quietly, without much fanfare, with the establishment of three primary schools in 1999. The years ahead saw unprecedented success of the project. Villagers and several other well-wishers of Muslim Umma joined together in the movement. Donors emerged where no one was prepared to talk about education. It awakened urge for education in areas, which were totally virgin from this aspect. The Project encountered some setbacks too, but the number of schools grew.

Now, within a span of five years, 24 schools have been established, providing qualitative religious and modern education to more than 4498 students in this region. These schools do not discriminate between religious groups and large number of Non-Muslim students and teachers are part of these schools. Teaching of Holy Qur’an, Islamic Studies and Urdu language is compulsory for Muslim students. On completion of basic education (class 5th), the students complete the Nazira i.e. the recitation of the Holy Qur’an, with some basic grounding in Maths, Science, Geography, Hindi and English.

Numerous observers have found the schools ahead in teaching standards than many other government or private schools of the area. The movement has also demonstrated that intelligence is not the hegemony of urban folk. The children in rural areas, victims of the parent’s negligence and apathy, have been found to be equally intelligent and hardworking.

The plan now is to expand this network of schools affiliated with the three centers. A brief account of each school is given ahead. It will be of interest to those who want to help in this mission or start a similar educational effort in their areas.