Always Learn!

By Sadaket Malik

Gone are the days when improvised areas like of Bhalessa witnessed grim educational face. There is an irreversible tide in the sphere of education right from elementary to higher and technical sectors. This paradigm shift may be due to the upcoming of the institutions of excellence in the area.

The institutions booming in the area are to be credited in this direction.

Bhalessa- nestling amongst high mountainous and cliffy terrain of Doda in Jammu and Kashmir state of India Himalayan region, off shooting high where skies are the limits, it is most prominent township called Bhalessa.
Where spirituality attunes the skies resting aside castes, creed and colours and above all religions, it is here, that is Bhalessa. It is Bhalessa where Ruby Gems on mountainous slopes glows and glitters and marble of Thathri twinkle amidst dense, vibrant, lush green uplands it is here that Perched securely among the lofty snow-sprinkled mighty Himalayan mountain chain, the emerald blue skies peeping through the chinks of the clouds, the tall coniferous trees swaying to the rhythm of the gusts of wind, all condense into a kindly smile, forming the lovely Bhalessa.
Once upon a time, the education was rare, there was a single primary school at Kalgoni Bhalessa where in rare people got enrolled to get education. Ghulam Rasool Azad and Munshi Mohammed Anwer were the first to get education from this primary school. Both Munshi and Azad Munshi Sahib studied at the Government Primary school in Kilhotran and then were sent to Bhaderwah for further studies.
Presently the area seemed full of enthusiasm and attire to recieve education initiated by the state and centre.

Besides this, the tattering educational affairs of the area was shaped by the then Director Education Ghulam Rasool Azad who belongs from the area. Packed with outstanding achievements, Ghulam Rasool Azad left no stone unturned to revamp the education system of the area. As ill luck would have it this legendary man not remained among the people.

At this moment, Bhalessa has been revealed as a hub of education as the introduction of new institutions of higher learning and increases impetus on the information technology and professional education. IGNOU and some other organisations have started churning several industrially employable graduates from the area.

The tattering educational affairs have been altered after G R Azad era. The people seemed interested to access the rural information centres in this hilly terrain.

The setting up of Government Higher secondary schools in Gowari, Sinoo, Jakyas, Gandoh, Malanoo has had its great significance over the past five years as the people of these areas thought of higher objectives.

The local people were demanding immediate setting up of Government Degree College at Bhalessa and the government finally established the same. IGNOU and some other organizations like ITI started churning several graduates in diverse disciplines is an unprecedented growth towards the education of this hilly terrain. IGNOU set up its centre in Bhalessa in the year 2006 and was galvanized by the local masses and administration.

Apart from academic and vocational side, there has been an unprecedented growth of Maddersa’s in this improvised area. There is rising tide in madersa education, as is being witnessed today. The Madersa’s increased in number.

Interestingly, the number rose to 10. Besides nurturing the Islamic clerics from these Madersa’s including Hafiz and Ulema, these institutions seemed increasingly imparting modern education also at the pattern of other government schools under the ambit of the state government.

Innovative madrasa’s like the Jamia Gunyat ul Uloom are increasingly visible today, Jamia Gunyat ul Uloom Bhatyas established in the year 1983 and was named after Hazrat Abdul Gani Sadiqui. The madersa is managed by Gunyat Ul Uloom Trust Bhalessa is the largest Institution imparting Madersa and academic education to the students of hilly terrain of Bhalessa.

It currently has more than a thousand students on its rolls. Patterned on the Dar ul Uloom Deoband model, it is one of the few madrasas in the state of Jammu and Kashmir that provide Islamic education till the Alim Fazil or specialization level.

Besides Jamia, there are several other maddersa’s like Maddersa Asrar Ul Uloom at Neeli Bhalessa named after Shah Asrar ud Din Bagdadi (RA). Other Madersas are:-  Maddersa Anwar-e-Madina Gandoh, Maddersa Aweesya Ameenya Dhraveri, Gulshan-e-Madina at Dhadkai hamlet, Akhyar ul Uloom at Kahara, Gayas Ul Uloom at Gingota hamlet, Inam ul Uloom at Donadi, Ume-Sadiqa at Kilhotran, and Zia-ul Uloom at Thathri.

In these madrasah’s, the academic education envisaged by the state education department is being provided besides the Islamic and Arabic studies like recitation of Quran popularly known as Hifz and Ulema to become isamic clerics.

There were several forces at work help to create educational assess to assess to information to the elites inhibiting the villages nearby,  Such forces include NGOs framed by intellectual strata.

The NGO culture seemed its head high Educational Environmental social sports and cultural society Bhalessa, National Students Welfare Association Bhalessa, Kohistan Association Bhalessa. These NGOs involved themselves in mass cultivation programmes including education I mention here the contribution of these NGOs here,

Over 10 years all these NGOs started free education camping’s/ summer schools for the needy students of the area, NGO- Kohistan Association, NHRDS has to be credited in this direction as the NGO organized six free education camps in Bhalessa in early five years.

NGO National Students Welfare Association Bhalessa is having its big contribution for setting up of an IGNOU Special study centre in Bhalessa and putting forth the demand for setting up of Government Degree College at Kilhotran.

On the other hand, In the summer of 1996, a few NGOs  got together to think of ways in which they could play a role in the development of education in hilly terrain of Bhalessa Doda of J&K state. These young people shared the belief that education is a critical requisite and an effective catalyst for social and economic change in the area. Educational awareness became the agenda for the action group that emerged from this gathering, to represent the hope that had brought these individuals together and the hope that they aimed to bring into the lives of youth of the area.

The organization like Kohistan Association headed by Ghulam Hussain Bhall, National Students Welfare Association and NHRD Society headed by Basharat Hussain Malik managed free education camps for the students who were unable to perceive their education. The camps were hghly endorsed by local scholarly community like Shoket Ali Mattoo and Noor ul Hassan Wani.

As far as primary education is concerned, there are two separate educational zones controlled by ZEO Gandoh covering all area of Gandoh, Neeli, Dudwar, Gowari, Jitota upto Khaljugasar Panchayat, and ZEO Bhatyas covering areas like Malanoo, Kahara, Jakyas upto halaran village.

On being prompted by the Tehsil Administration and Sub Divisional Megistrate Bhalessa, students and teachers of all these Institutions share a single table on the eve of Independence Day celebrations where they deliver patriotic speeches.As per the preliminary survey conducted by local NGO-National Students’ Welfare Association (NSWA) Bhalessa, there are —–schools wherein the students have to stay under open air to get education. Some such schools are either having no building or damaged infrastructure.

Ironically, The Government Middle School in Manoie Bhatyas is the testimony of the state of sorry affairs as the students has to stay under the lap of nature to get instructions from their teachers. The school building is totally damaged and students in a bad weather conditions have to leave their studies. In summer it becomes difficult for innocent poor children to stay in the school owing to the inadequate infrastructure like buildings.

The infrastructure of the most of these schools is in a bad shape. Some schools are without buildings and some are lacking teachers.

Very recently, the government under the leadership of the then Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and Mohammed Sharief Niaz MLA Bhaderwah sanctioned one Degree College at Kilhotran, that too is confronting inadequate infrastructure facilities like accommodation, the college is being run from single or two rooms vacated by Government Higher secondary school kilhotran, and finally the school has become prey of inadequate infrastructure forcing the students to sit in an open air.

Sadaket Malik is a researcher in Education and can be contacted at sadaketmalik@rediffmail.com

EDUCATION IN  ZAMBIA

Zambia got independence in 1964, and the country’s first president, Kenneth Kaunda, led the country as a one-party state until 1991, when a multi-party system was introduced. But in reality, Zambia’s democracy is still not working very well. Decisions are primarily made by the ruling party elite, while parliament and district authorities have very little say on matters of planning and budgeting. Theoretically, the citizens have been allowed to influence the planning process through a decentralisation reform, which was launched in 2004, but there is still a great lack of structures that can effectively give citizens a more direct influence on the decision-making processes.

it has been estimated that 34% of seven years old children are denied  admission to primary school each year because of lack of places. More than 600, 000 children between the ages of seven are not in school and the majority are girls.”

Education in Zambia has improved a lot since independence, but a lot more still needs to be done. The growing population from 3,319,538 in 1980 to 10 million people in 2002. It has shown that rapid growth of Zambian citizen has drastically influenced the education sector in Zambia.” The numbers of school places are now no longer sufficient to take in all the children. It’s a big challenge to orphans to orphans and vulnerable children (OVC’s) to access education from time to time as the sector has experienced the disequilibrium. The impact is mainly ignored as its couples itself with economic trends of lack of employment as a source of income to sustain the ongoing school children.

Kabsy Consultancy Services a leading firm academic consultancy firm in Africa has embarked on a programme of helping more African educanalists to realise their full potential. A project was launched in Kabwe, Zambia early October 2009. Kabsy Consultancy services is empowering Zambian companies with development, social work skills and infotech fundamentals. The main aim is in promoting education policy in Zambia and meeting vision 2030.

It’s in this line that the government the republic of Zambia, in 2002 introduced free basic education from grade one to grade seven, so as to allow number of orphans and vulnerable children to access education. Other policy key principles were in decentralization of the education system, building of more schools, and deployment of more teachers who were waiting to be sent in various schools. Improvement of teacher’s allowances, especially housing allowances to teachers working in rural areas setting.

Having implemented the free basic education policy from 2002, what has been the impact on the target group? Studies on the implementation of social policy and its impact on the target group have been done. The reports show that the education system of Zambia has denied access to the orphans and vulnerable children despite introduction free primary education. “The OVC’s’ are still deniable admission in primary school and this forces them to find themselves in community schools. To those that have attended school in available public learning institutions, quality of services being provided still remains very poor. About one third of Zambia’s primary does not go to school. They stay away because school is expensive, or stay away or because they have to work. For those that attend, they drop out rates offering girls in particular after grade 4.

In most rural areas, parent of female children see their daughters as their source of riches. They would rather sell their children, in the name of marriage at an early age in order to lay their hands in the bride price. They do not realize the importance of educating the girl child which is very saddening. There has got to be more awareness made in the rural areas. ”

Civil Society for Poverty Reduction, CSPR (2000: 10) records that, “for those that stay in school, the number of teachers is consistently shrinking, and in rural areas it is easy to find schools with only teachers. Children are often hungry, which reduces learning and development. The schools have little or no funds for books or other learning materials.” In line of the above, it has been observed that there is a need of improving current infrastructure in the country, if development in the education has to be revealed to its maximum potential.

Another factor that hinders the progress of development is HIV/AIDS. This ever-isolating scourge is drawing Zambia back, in many ways. Zambia is suffering from brain drain because most of our education citizens are dying a premature death, which is damaging to Zambia. In addition, the breadwinners of families are being lost and their families left to live in poverty. According to International HIV/AIDS Alliance (2003:6) writes to say; “some children may pull out of school altogether because of fear of getting HIV from their teachers, this is particularly so in rural areas where most children are still be misinformed about HIV/AIDS infection.”

Other side of the picture on HIV/AIDS is that, the children are left homelessly without having anyone to support them and this tend to disorganize a home in the event if the death of a man of the house as the women will not be able to take care of the children without the help of extended family.

According to Mwansa A,C (2004) as reflected in free basic education policy implementation policy implementation assessment, reports that, “ enrolments increased marginally after the introduction of free basic education policy. On the other hand the, applications declined in 2003 especially in rural areas. It would seem that the causal factor was not only major barrier to access. Though the guidelines from the ministry of education did not impose any limit on enrolments, one third of the applicant were turned away , suggesting that are other considerations are equally important in determine access to education. The rate of girls turned away was slightly higher than that of boys. One of the reasons why a third of the applicant re turned away from school is the inadequacy of school infrastructure.”

In view of the analysis presented above, I therefore recommend that, if free basic education policy has to be effectively implemented there is a need of the government to build more infrastructure facilities such s schools, universities, more education colleges. There is also a need of improving teacher’s conditions in terms of housing allowances and salaries, if more graduates have to join the teaching profession.

In the context of poverty and education, the government needs to build more state companies rather than bringing selfish investors, who aim only in making profit and taking t into their respective countries. Companies for Zambian will have a heart for people and hence people will move from being exploited to more empowered with economical resources that will fight poverty, HIV/AIDS and unemployment.

Conclusion.

Social Policy is a system of interrelated principles that are formulated in line with the problem at hand, its aim is in seeing to it that people lives are improved and people re in a state of social and economical dependence. One of such areas is education policies, which re formulated in meeting the needs of people in accessing education for all. However, Zambian education policy has to be clearly articulated and fine tuned so as to realistically meet the needs of the Zambian people.  They must take cognizance of the paucity of national resources, be complotted by professionals such as social workers, and incorporates inputs from grassroots movements.