Vijayapura: Anjum Parveen Shaikh is now studying in class eight in Government Urdu school for girls, at Ukkali village of the district which is around 20 kms from the city.
Anjum has a desire to study and become a teacher, however she fears that she may have to quit schooling itself and never fulfil her dreams.
The main reason for this fear is the village not having Urdu high school and for this reason, she will have to travel to Vijayapura city for higher education, which her family may not agree with.
She is one the several Muslim girls who want to study but there is an absence of High School and fear of family not allowing them to travel to the city.
Anjum said she knows several girls of the villager who quit schooling after class eight and were married off a few years later.
The local leaders and students like Anjum are demanding the government to upgrade the school to High School by including class nine and ten so that the students can complete at least high school.
Rabbani Inamdar, a local leader who has been fighting at every possible level to get the school upgraded, said that every year, at least 30 girls quit schooling after eight classes and join family work or become child laborers to bring additional income to the family.
“I have seen families taking their daughters along with them for labour works after the daughter completes class eight. Even if the girl and the family want higher education, in the absence of high school, the parents hesitate to send them to Vijayapura city. Since many come from orthodox families, they don’t show interest in letting their child travel to the city every day. They think that their daughter will get spoiled. Most of the families will let their daughters study at least till high school if the village has it”, he said.
Inamdar said that the school has around 200 students, of which some 40 are in class eight.
One the teachers said that even after making several requests to education departments, no decision was made to upgrade the school to high school.
“When the government extensively holds programmes on ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ in order to encourage the girls to study, the campaign appears hollow when we look at the ground reality”, he said.
Recently, the school staff, local residents and students met Minister for Primary and Secondary, S. Suresh Kumar during his visit to Vijayapura and requested him to upgrade the school.