Muslim kids at Telangana residential schools for minorities perform the worst academically, according to a study
According to a recent research by the state government on minority kids enrolled in its residential schools, Muslim students in Telangana are academically more behind those from other minority populations, especially those who attended madrasas or schools teaching the language in Urdu.
The Telangana Minority Residential Educational Institutions Society (TMREIS) was examined in the study, which was conducted by the Council for Social Development on behalf of the Telangana Planning Department. The TMREIS was established by the state government in 2016–17, just two years after achieving statehood. The state’s Bangaru Telangana (Golden Telangana) programme, which focused on minorities and Muslims in particular, included TMREIS as part of its effort to provide free education to economically disadvantaged people.
In Telangana’s urban, semi-urban, and rural areas, 25 such minority residential schools are the subject of the study. In the state, there are 204 such institutions.
“The Telangana government had noted that minority students in the state had very poor academic standing. It began this programme to close the gap between general students and minority students. We have noticed that enrollment in these institutions has grown over time, showing that more minority parents who were formerly opposed to education are now more in favour of it, according to Ramshim Rahiman, the study’s author.
A child’s aspirations for education are “influenced by class, caste, religion, gender, geographical location, region, family, and parental attitude toward education,” according to the study.
Muslims are the most impoverished group when it comes to access to higher education, the report claims, noting that although making up 14.2% of the population, Muslims’ literacy rate in 2011 was 59.1%, much lower than the national average of 64.8%.
Rahiman argues that the presumption that the Muslim community is homogenous is incorrect and that there are significant regional and cultural distinctions among Muslims, which have an impact on the community’s children’s educational attainment.
According to the Sachar report, 25% of Muslim youngsters between the ages of 6 and 14 have either skipped school or dropped out. Children are typically compelled to drop out of school owing to poverty; 4% of Muslims have graduated; barely 2% of Muslims have earned a post-graduate degree. According to the Sachar committee, Muslim populations’ educational attainment lags substantially behind that of Scheduled Caste and Schedule Tribe communities in many areas, particularly metropolitan India.
According to the 2011 census, Muslims make up 12.68% of the population in Telangana, where 76.9 percent of people are literate.
“Muslim students are enrolling in more Telangana schools, but we need additional information to conclude with certainty that this is the case. Nevertheless, the Muslim minority in Telangana had the greatest dropout rate and the worst academic achievement, according to Rahiman.
According to the 2014 AISHE data, ST students made up 4.8% of higher education institutions, OBC students made up 32.9%, and SC students made up 13.4% of those. 4.4% of students in higher education institutions who identified as Muslim were at the bottom of the food chain.
According to the survey, 63 percent of Muslims in Hyderabad are from BPL families, making up less than 2% of the city’s economic elite.
According to the 2017 Telangana Social Development Report, nearly half of the state’s Muslims reside in Hyderabad, compared to 32.6% of Hindus and 74.6% of Muslims, who both dwell in urban regions. Muslims in Hyderabad had the lowest monthly per capita spending.
“We discovered that 95% of Muslim kids’ parents are from low-income families and are either daily labourers or self-employed. These parents are unable to help their kids with higher education decisions, which has an impact on the child’s desire to pursue higher education. Parental and familial impact is crucial for a child’s academic success as well as lifespan, according to one of the most significant findings of the study, says Rahiman.
Rahiman adds that when the initiative first began, teachers from these schools conducted a door-to-door campaign but were frequently abused and greeted with animosity from the parents. In order to promote enrollment, the schools then made contact with the Muslim community through NGOs, madrasas, and mosques.
Even though the schools had kids from various minority groups and even from the general category, the assessment further revealed that Muslim students were the most academically behind, particularly in their early years.
According to the survey, the majority of these pupils attended madrasas or schools with an Urdu language curriculum. According to the research, the majority of students in these schools up to fifth grade lacked even a foundational understanding of math or English. The majority of Muslim students were first-generation college students.
According to the survey, socioeconomically disadvantaged Muslim parents were the least involved in their children’s academic lives, and they interacted with instructors and the school the least out of all the communities. Additionally, they had the lowest expectations for education and did not associate it with academic achievement. Therefore, rather than choosing academic courses, the majority of Muslim students at these residential schools would choose one of the several vocational programmes the institutions offer.
