BaKhabar, April 2010, Page-3

better light a candle than curse the darkness

Coaching of School Students to Minimize Drop-Out & Raise percentage of Minority students in Colleges and Universities

Proposal to move to 2nd phase: include grades 5th, 6th, and 7th, to make the foundation strong (http://coaching.biharanjuman.org/)

With Allah's limitless mercy, RAHBAR Coaching Centres have provided tuition assistance to the under privileged students of our society, for 2009-2010 session of Bihar Board, at 3 centres: Patna, Samastipur, and Darbhanga.
In the next session, the same shall be provided at 7 centres, insha-Allah @ Patna, Samastipur, Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur, Gopalganj, Aurangabad, and Chakradharpur (2 more centres are likely to be included in this phase, insha-Allah, depending upon availability of sponsorship and readiness of the ground-work for these centres).
The grade 10th students have just written their board exams, and 5 of them along with 5 from outside are undergoing a crash course of 10 days for the entrance exam of Rahmani-30, at RAHBAR Coaching centre, Patna. Grades 8th and 9th students have continued to be taught at the coaching centres, in order to remove their weaknesses, and make them ready for the next grade.

Please recall that we focused on students who were left out by the society, due to (a) poverty and (b) non-performance. Admission to the coaching centre was based solely on economic backwardness, not on merit, because these were considered the potential drop-outs. Meritorious students are offered waiver of their fees by many private schools, thus paving the way for proper education of even the poor students among them. But, how can a poor-performer, among the economically under privileged, get into the league of the meritorious, with no tuition facilities? A large percentage of Muslim students drop out this way, and thus leave the arena for "others" – please refer to the graph, below [The gap between us and other communities is constantly widening]. Can we remain satisfied with more than 75% of our population not moving beyond middle school education?
The strategy to stop drop-outs that was adopted has proved to be excellent. But...

From our experience, we noted that the merit level of many students in the grade 8, 9 and 10, was so poor that they deserved to be at grade 4 or below. When we enquired about how they got promoted to the higher classes, we were shocked. They adopted illegal means in which the govt school teachers were their partners. We were trying to prepare these students in a way that they could get through diploma entrance exams at least, or enter programs like Rahmani-30. But, the unfortunate low merit levels of a vast majority of students made it really difficult to do much for them. Those students who were really sincere picked up a lot, particularly if they were also supported by their parents. Our program incorporated rewards for these performers, in order to encourage others as well. But, the most important learning from this project so far has been the realization that we MUST intervene at lower levels, that is at lower grades. Going too far below would be like opening a school, and may prove to be too expensive.

The experience of those who have visited the coaching centres, met the students, talked to them, suggest that unless we start coaching at lower levels, our intention to stop (at least, reduce) the drop-outs may not succeed.

Sachar Committee Report, Figure 4.23-enrollment.jpg

An eligibility criterion for admission to The RAHBAR Coaching centre is the student's enrolment in any of the govt. schools. Why govt. schools?
1. It's a sure-shot indicator of low family income level of the applicant.
2. If 66% Muslim children are in govt. schools, as is clear from the adjacent figure, from Sachar Committee report, then we would be taking care of a vast majority of Muslim children.
Why not private schools, also?
Simply to avoid complexities in deciding who is economically underpriledged and who is not. The chances of some student from this social group, without no support, at all, is very rare.

Br. Shakil Ahmad Khan (Riyadh) and Br. Asif Moazzam (Abha, KSA) had proposed to consider coaching the 5th graders for Navoday, Sainik and

Netarhat schools, so that they could get free education which is far better in quality than what any private schools can offer. Coaching the 5th graders to help them compete the Jawahar Novoday Vidyalaya (JNVST) entrance exams would be a great achievement. Out of those who enter these coveted schools, through the exams @ Patna region (Bihar – 19% Muslim population, Jharkhand–18% Muslim population and West Bengal–25% Muslim population), only 4% Muslim students compete (Refer to Pages 62-64 of Sachar Committee Report).

Sachar Committee Report: Percentage who completed at Least Midlle School-Bihar

Remember, these schools take 30,000 students to impart the best quality education, free-of-cost. Can there be a better source for the poor Muslims to get decently educated?
Please note that students can write the JNVST test in Urdu also, which means this test is open to the madrasa students as well. This shows that our students are academically far worse off, at the grade-5 levels.
Who drops out? One who does not do well ... parents have no hopes from these potential earning hands. If they start doing well, the parents would allow them to continue. If we wish to increase their percentage at grade-10 or grade-12 levels, we would need to start intervening at these lower levels.
The extension of coaching to grades 5, 6, and 7 is possible at no extra cost. If the class-hours remain limited to 3 hours, the cost does not increase. However, the efforts of the teachers and the members of the management committee and the team-leaders will definitely increase. But, we have highlighted a problem, which needs a solution without which the objective cannot be achieved. We have suggested a solution which requires more efforts from our volunteers, unless we decide to pay someone to take the extra burden. If this is the only solution, let’s try to implement the solution, and deal with the related challenges, rather than get overwhelmed by the challenges, and do nothing.

Email: bakhabar@biharanjuman.org Facebook Page for Coaching Projects