LAST YEAR, the Ministry of Minority Affairs launched the Nai Manzil scheme for Muslim youth (aged 17-35 years), whereby both school-dropouts and those from Madrasa backgrounds were to be provided formal education with full fee waiver, in order to help them find employment. The Jamia Senior Secondary School, one of the beneficiaries of the scheme, enrolled 100 such students as part of a bridge course in Class XII to provide them quality education.

They were provided a monthly stipend of Rs 4,000 along with stationery, books and lunch. However, the journey wasn’t easy — for the students, or for the teachers and principal. “It was tough for us to find drop-outs or Madrasa students to enroll in the course. We finally approached some NGOs who worked with school drop-outs to help us,” says Principal Muzaffar Hassan.

Classes for various humanities subjects were held six days a week for nine months. Teachers would finish their regular classes and then teach additional hours as part of the bridge course. The classes bore fruit for several whose link to education had been broken for various reasons.On October 4 this year, 75 of the batch of 100 students were felicitated by Jamia Millia Islamia Vice-Chancellor Talat Ahmad for having passed their board exams. Fifteen of them scored first division, and 64 of them have already enrolled in undergraduate or professional courses. The Indian Express talks to four such students, whose lives have changed post their board exam marks.

[Source:-The Indian Express]