Dhule (Maharashtra): At first, nothing unusual was noticed when two students recited with clear and hypnotic Muslim accent and intonation the Holy Quran during morning prayers at this school located in the outskirt of the tribal city. It was only when they were introduced that the extraordinary part of the 10-minute daily school event caught eyes of the audience.
The little kids were Anurag Bhagwan Patil and Harshal Patil – the Hindu students of Young Boy’s Educational & Industrial Circle’s English Medium Islamic Day School. But, they recited the Holy Quran with mesmerizing accent and total perfection normally expected only from a Muslim.
“I am proud of Anurag and Harshal who can recite the Muslim Holy Book with such perfection. Quality is top priority in my school and I don’t let my staff compromise on this”, Ansari Nilofer, the Principal of the school, said while talking to ummid.com.
She also said that students of her school are taught to treat all religions with equal respect.
According to the Islamic subject teacher of the school, Anurag and Harshal, both now in 5th standard, had memorized the Surahs of the Holy Quran when they were in the 3rd standard. He also said that both the students can read and write the Urdu language with the same fluency.
To its credit, the school also has many Hindu students currently studying here with the same ease, comfort and harmony, and also quite a few who after passing class 10 exam from here got admissions in reputed colleges for higher education.
“To name just two, Suryavanshi Chetan and Suryavanshi Girish, two cousins who cleared SSC exam from our school, are at present doing engineering”, Javed Habib, the Secretary of the school, said.
“Both of them scored exceptionally well in all subjects including Urdu”, he added.
But, this is not the only feature which distinguishes Young Boy’s Educational & Industrial Circle’s English Medium Islamic Day School from others. At a time when education sector is commercialized, the school is charging only a meager Rs.250-300 per month to the students as fees.
“Most of our students come from economically very poor families who cannot afford to pay hefty fees”, Javed said.
In reply to a question he said the management depends on donations and contributions from management members and the community to run the school.
“Besides this, we are proud of our teaching and non-teaching staffs who are offering their services for years in return of salaries which is no match to what their counterparts in granted schools are getting”, he added.
Interestingly, the staff is not only working on meager salaries but they are also contributing in whatever way they can for the development of the school.
“Can you see the climbers, swings, seasaw and slides?” Javed asked, his fingers pointing at the playground.
“They are all donated to the school by our staff”, he said.