A Ten Year Plan

For the Total Education of Indian Muslims

January 1, 2009, Aleem Faizee, ummid.com

Mubarak Kapdi, Founder President of National Movement for Education and Chairman of Maharashtra Urdu High School is famous for his brainstorming lectures on education and career guidance. Starting as a career expert and guiding the students how to study and score good marks in HSC and SSC board exams, Mubarak Kapdi today is traveling all across the country to create awareness about education among the Muslim masses in India. The renowned Educationalist, as he is now being referred to as, was in Malegaon for a two-day Education Awakening Program jointly organized by Jamia Mohammadia Education Society and the local Urdu daily Shamnama.

The first day of the program on December 27, 2008, held at Malegaon High School & Jr College, was devoted for the students and their parents. Next day’s session held at the plush Mansoora Auditorium was reserved for the teachers and the B. Ed. and D. Ed. students. Thousands thronged the venues of the program as Mubarak Kapdi  delivered his useful lectures in his unique style. Moreover the conference received some very useful additions from Nashik SP Nikhil Gupta who was the chief guest for the first day and Dr. Saeed Farani who presided the second and final day’s sessions.

“We will discuss each and every detail today in this conference and I hope after this conference we will cross yet another landmark to achieve our target of Total Education Revolution for the Indian Muslims. Let us pass on the message discussed in this meeting to others who are not here today”, Mubarak Kapdi urged the audience while explaining various means for combating the challenge of illiteracy among the Indian Muslims. Following his assertions, ummid.com has tried to summaries various strategies and plans discussed by Mubarak Kapdi and other speakers in this Education Conference for its readers.

Root cause of the Problems

Stating that alarmingly low literacy level among the Muslims in India has surely been a reason to worry about ever since the independence, Mubarak Kapdi said, “It is a pity that we have failed in finding a remedy for this disease in sixty long years.”

Criticizing the way recommendations made by Sacchar Committee Report and suggestions made by other commissions are gathering the dust, Mubarak Kapdi said, “We should at least now realize that such committees and commissions are constituted to lure us and divert our attentions. They instead of solving our problems, provide fodder to fascist forces who term even these useless initiatives as Muslim appeasement.”

Urging the audience that instead of depending on the government or anyone, they should effectively utilize whatever resources they have, Kapdi said, “We are experimenting since last sixty years without any results. Let us now devise a strategy for the next ten years making it sure that the mistakes that were committed in the past are not repeated again.”

Ten-year plan to mend sixty years of failures

Kapdi while elaborating the details of the ten-year plan he thinks suitable for the overall revival of the Indian Muslims said, “On one hand despite our sectarian differences we should come on a single platform for addressing the common problems that we are facing today and on the other everyone of us should try to clear the misconceptions about Islam from at least one non-Muslim’s mind.”

Elaborating how Taleemi Gusht (Education Drive) and effective utilization of Zakaah (2.5% of the income mandatory for a Muslim to give in charity) can be used for yielding desired results Kapdi said, “To stop dropouts from the schools we should reach to the masses and explain them the importance of education. At the same time, we should have a Bait-ul-Maal (Charity House) in every town for effective utilization of Zakaah and to help those who opt out of schools on financial grounds. Also, instead of looking at the national organizations to take the lead, a Mohalla Tanzeem (an organization at grass root level) can be more productive for addressing our day to day grievances.”

Stating that valuable energy is lost in complaining and criticizing others, he advised, “The time has come to stop complaining and to respect whatsoever small anyone is doing and to improve whatever big we are doing.” Simultaneously he advised the Muslims to refrain from distinguishing the religious and modern education system. “The very idea of distributing the education into such categories is wrong”, he said adding, “Many scientific principles and inventions are based on the revelations made in Quran. It is strange to find someone discriminating the education system.”

Responsibilities of parents towards their children

Mubarak Kapdi in his more than two-hour long lecture urged the parents to actively assist and encourage their school going children. “Thanks to the Government’s education policy that is based on pay and learn system, higher education will become more difficult in coming days. Against this backdrop parents should have a budget for education, and apart from sparing a good number of time for their children, they should also save a certain amount everyday for the higher education of their children.”

Emphasizing the role of a responsible mother and proper environment inside one’s residence, he said, “The first school of any child is the mother and the environment under which he is living. It is surprising that while we make legitimate or illegitimate criticism against a school or college, we are totally ignorant about maintaining proper environment in our house and the role a mother can play in building the character, and of course the career of her children. We totally ignore that a disturbed marital life of the parents can also disturb the career of their children.”

Mubarak Kapdi criticizing the way sons and daughters are treated differently in Muslim households said, “We ignore even if our daughters are performing wonderfully well in their studies. We should stop this kind of discrimination now and forever. The poor academic show by the sons entails that the tough stance we take towards our daughters should be applied to the sons as well. Otherwise the sons will not improve themselves and we will continue to suffer the problems arising out of inappropriate marriages”, he said and added, “For their secure and respectable future, higher education for our daughters has become even more important today.”

Guidelines for the students

Stating that Muslims are normally not certain about their career even after graduation, Mubarak Kapdi advised the students to plan for their career long before HSC and SSC. “Most of the time”, he said, “Due to financial problems that unfortunately are common in Muslim societies our students are reluctant to plan their career at early age. But there is no threat to his or her career if a student is good in exams. There are people today who can finance their education if they are good in studies.”

“Often the students do not get the active support and the required encouragement from their family and hence to prove their talent, they resort to short cuts. And when that results in failures, they are left with no option but to work on lower positions”, he said and added, “We should remember that our students have unprecedented talent in them. What they need is proper guidance, timely decisions and effective planning.”

After these valuable tips and guidelines Mubarak Kapdi elaborated in details about the various professional courses in Medical, Engineering, Business Management, UPSC, MPSC and other options available for the HSC and SSC students. Wrapping his two and half hour long lecture, he urged the students to work hard for achieving their targets. “If you want a secure future in life, work hard between 14 and 24 years age of your life”, he advised and concluded, “This will not only bring you a safe future but it will also help us in achieving the target of having a DOCTOR or a qualified NURSE in very Muslim household by 2015.”

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