Minority schools of Ahmedabad seek nod for more sections

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi may claim that his government is committed to the development of all sections of society but the schools in minority areas of the state tell a very different story. For instance, the most common complaint of schools in the minority areas of Ahmedabad is that they find it hard to get permission for increasing the number of sections for a class to meet the growing rush of students. This permission is granted by field-level officers of the state education department.

The authorities of schools in minority areas say there is great rush for admission in secondary and higher secondary schools in their areas but the schools can't admit everyone as they do not have permission to increase the number of sections in different classes. This forces the less well-off students to discontinue studies and drop out of school.   

New Age High School is located in Juhapura, the largest minority-dominated locality of Ahmedabad. The principal of the school, UM Maroo, said there are four grants-in-aid high schools and three self-financed high schools in Juhapura.

"Every year, we are under great pressure because of the large number of students seeking admission in class 8. All the four schools have a total 15 sections in Class 8 but we and other private high schools in the area are unable to meet the demand. We had applied for permission to create more sections for Class 8 but our applications were rejected by authorities who cited ridiculous reasons for their decision," Maroo said.

He further said that many students give up studies if they don't get admission as they are not from affluent families. "They start working instead. If there were more schools in the area, this would not happen and they would be able to complete school," he said.

Sources in the education department said that the number of students in a class — this includes the students in all the sections of the class concerned — must meet the norms for student-teacher ratio in schools.

If the number of students in a class increases, the class would need not only extra sections but also more teachers to meet the norms for ideal student-teacher ratio, the sources said. As the funding for a grants-in-aid school includes the salaries of teachers, increasing the number of teachers would mean the funds given to the school would also have to be increased. Hence schools have to take government permission for increasing the number of sections in a class, the sources added.

Sharifunnisa Kazi, principal of FD Girls High School in Jamalpur area of Ahmedabad, believes there are other reasons too for Muslim children dropping out of school. She said the gender bias, which is common in all communities, is another important reason for Muslim girl students leaving school midway.  "The Muslim community is no different from other communities of our society in giving priority to education of boys. When it comes to choosing between educating boys or girls, most Muslim families give priority to sons of the family," said Kazi.

She, however, added that her school also faced problems in getting permission for increasing the number of sections in a class.

"There are 6 sections in Class 9 at our school but only 4 sections in Class 10. How can we accommodate students of two full sections in Class 10? We had applied for increasing the number of sections in Class 10 but we did not get permission. One of the reasons given by the authorities was that the school doesn't have an adequate playground. But this is the same school which was given permission for more sections earlier!" Kazi said.