Mangalore: Urdu Education - Is it on the Wane?
by Anisa Fathima
April 14, 2007
It was once the language of kings and celebrated poets, but today, Urdu has lost its glory and not many are interested in taking it up as a language of study.
This is evident not just in the state of affairs of Urdu medium schools in the country, but also the number of schools that teach the language.
Incidentally, our district does not have a single Urdu medium school, but there are eighteen schools in and around the city which teach Urdu as an optional language. Only three of these are within city limits, and these are the ones which have the highest student strength.
Speaking to Daijiworld, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan assistant project coordinator Geetha K said, ‘Most of the schools that are on the outskirts of city have students from far away districts like Bijapur, and academically they are poor.’
The problems are many. Apart from a low academic standard, the teachers often complain of badly behaved students. This was evident at the school we visited – the students were not only paying least attention to the teacher, but also running about the classroom at their will. Although this is not a problem unique only to these schools, it is a matter of concern, considering the fact that these schools also show poor results in the examinations.
The crux of the matter is that most students come from families where education is not a family trait. The parents are little or not educated at all, and hence the children tend to take things easy. The Muslim community has always been educationally backward and the efforts of a handful of Muslims to educate their fellowmen have not been enough. Most parents feel that being religiously educated is more than enough for their child, and often, the secular or modern education is seen as an adversary to religion.
Being among the minority communities of the country, a chunk of the Muslim population is also financially backward, who cannot afford the luxury of education. This has led to segregation within the community where some are rich enough to give their children the best of modern education, while the rest are so poor that they cannot afford a full day’s meal.
It is the lower strata of the community that usually sends its children to the government schools – the only place where Urdu is taught. As a result, the productivity is not of the desired standard, for, as I said, education to them is not of utmost importance.
One reason for the absence of Urdu medium schools is that the Urdu-speaking population is relatively less in the district. Being the language spoken by Muslims, the Muslim community is dominated by those who speak Malayalam or Beary language, and hence the relatively less number of students from Urdu speaking families has not necessitated the installation of Urdu medium school.
Under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) project, Urdu schools in the district have been receiving funds for various purposes every year. From the date of SSA’s inception in 2001-02, it has provided a total of Rs 45.18 lac for additional classrooms of 24; Rs 1.50 lac for 6 toilets; Rs 0.50 lac towards drinking water, 0.25 lac for electricity, 0.18 lac for three ramps (for physically challenged students) and Rs 5.28 lac for maintenance and repair. These figures hold good for only the Urdu teaching schools in the district.
The schools get a grant of Rs 2.72 lac per year including several expenses whereas the teacher grant is Rs 2.56 lac per year. Within the city, the school grant amount for lower primary section amounts to Rs 2000 per school per year, while that for higher primary schools the grant is Rs 4,000 per school per year.
In addition, the lower primary schools in the city get a grant of Rs 5,000 per school per year for maintenance and repair, while the higher primary section gets Rs 10,000 per school per year for the same.
Geetha further says, ‘There have been no recent additions to the Urdu schools. The existing ones were built long time ago. Since the construction of an Urdu school depends on the population speaking the language, a new school has not been necessary.’
The government sponsored ‘Pratibha Karanji’ programmes have been laying special importance on the students of Urdu schools by organising programmes specially aimed at boosting Urdu speaking children. In addition, the SSA also holds education awareness programmes for girl students of Urdu schools.
There is an interesting school of thought that says a student must be taught in his or her mother tongue in the early years of education. Numerous people would vouch for this, but there are a few loopholes to this theory. First of all, there are not many schools that provide quality education when it comes to vernacular languages. Secondly, the capacity to learn is most when the child is in the primary school level, and therefore, it would be the right time to introduce the child to a new language, than continuing in the mother tongue.
However, it cannot be denied that children who are educated in their mother tongues understand a subject better. The environment becomes more homely as the children are able to converse and interact better. My own brother-in-law is a fine example, who studied till SSLC in an Urdu medium school, pursued IAS and who now occupies a high position in the state government. Teaching in mother tongue would also help in preserving the language in its pure form. This is probably one more reason why Urdu has not been able to sustain itself.
All said and done, Urdu is a language that has strong foundation at least in our film industry, and therefore, it will always be in use. As famous Indian film producer-director Ismail Merchant had once said about Bollywood movies, ‘A few words of Hindi appear here or there, but it's all Urdu. I feel that if the popular culture, which is what Hindi films are, uses Urdu, it's not going to diminish.’
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