Rita Farhat Mukand

It was 15 years ago that Sairabanu Khan started a school, now called New National High School, with a vision that education alone can change the destinies of underprivileged people. Today, the school is a testament to the power of education in metamorphosing lives. She lives in Bijapur, a historical city established in the 10th–11th centuries by the Kalyani Chalukyas in Karnataka.

A day is never too long for Sairabanu. Over the years, she worked in the administration department of a private educational institute and recently retired. While working she founded a school that has transformed the lives of the children and even the parents living in the slums close to her home.

She says, “The area where I live is adjacent to the slum area. Being an educator, I noticed that the majority of the children there were dropouts; they either worked in garages, plied autos, sold flowers, pan masala, or bhutta (corn).”  

Watching children lead aimless lives which could sometimes lead to criminals using them for underhand work, Sairabanu was propelled to think of doing something for them. She spoke to her husband about it and he supported her idea of starting a school.

She sought permission from her private school to avoid a conflict of interest as she was already working in the educational sector. The school has no problem.

She started the school in her home in a small room with one teacher and four students with LKG, elementary primary school.  It did not take time before more children started enrolling. Since the school expanded, they gave up their big ancestral home for the school which has 200 students and is up to 12th standard.

Woefully she says, the only problem is finance. "If I had good finances, I would have built them a beautiful school. I bought land and put it in the name of the school, New National High School, it is 15 years old and started in 2010 and the National Education Society is the name of the organization. All that is left to be done is build a new school on that land.”

She said, “I initially got permission to start the school in the regional language Kannada and most of the scheduled castes, tribes, and Muslim children from the slum area were attending it. Gradually, I noted that those parents wanted the children to study in an "English medium" school. They wanted that traditional English “convent education” so I once again applied to the department for English and my school medium changed to an English medium. We started with elementary LKG 1-5, then up to 8, then 10th, so right from LKG to 10th standard, and now the Karnataka Education Board is affiliated to the Secondary Education Board.”

Sairabanu says that initially, the students were a bit clamorous with loud-mouthed students shouting across the class who barely sit still for a minute, squirming in their seats, restless and fidgeting, and with poor concentration levels. The children used foul language and cuss words and had no idea of profanities.

“It took months of patient hard work for me and other teachers to teach them how to speak without abusing, how to enunciate their speech calmly and politely, to the point that it was so dinned into their subconscious minds that they would instantly become aware when they started to use foul language. Another interesting thing that occurred was when new children came in using the same obscene language, the older children would immediately point it out. They were changing and this was our biggest victory.  Once again, I cannot blame them for this because they came from the slums where foul language ubiquitously runs around.”

Sairabanu said, “We hold regular frequent parent meetings coaching them to teach good manners to their children pointing out that while our lives became this way, we should not let their children go this same route. We want our students to hold prominent positions in life, and not become coolies or maalis, or work in tiny shops.

“It is truly heartwarming to see that the children are quite disciplined now. When new children use bad words, the older students instruct them not to speak this way and we cannot stop smiling broadly when we hear this. To see them socially and morally evolve is one of our greatest rewards.  My dream is to see these children walk on a higher path, with good language, etiquette, ethics, and morality and this is happening.  I take special pains during social science or English class to drill them with moralities and life skill values, which is around four times weekly.  I teach them about respecting parents, and elders, taking care of care of animals and now they are taking care of them, I teach them if they come across a snake, never kill it, but let it slither along its way.  I tell boys to respect women, and while we tell girls should maintain their modesty, it applies to the boys also to maintain their modesty, not stare at girls and take very good care of girls and protect them.

“To share a little story that has given me tremendous joy, just after COVID-19, we had a girl in our school; Misba Nadaf with severe health problems to the point she was skeletally thin and would consistently vomit, unable to retain anything. To add to the family’s misery, her father had abandoned them and the mother solely brought her up.  The mother informed me that she had visited a doctor and tried to give her treatment but nothing was working."

"She was diagnosed with a cyst in her body which would burst anytime.  She had to be operated upon. The surgeon was kind enough tobring down the cost of surgery to Rs 50,000. I gave Rs. 40,000 and our head madam gave Rs. 10,000.  That morning, with a great sense of achievement, we brought her to the hospital and while the operation was going on, I sat outside the OT praying hard. The operation was successful and after that, she started to heal.  She is now growing up beautifully and whenever I see her, I feel elated. She is studying in college and doing well

“Our school has not reached popular heights and is not well known because we don’t have a big grand building.  We are living in a residential area, and the building resembles house rooms. There are no funds to build a school so I use my old ancestral home for the school. We shifted to a new house and gave up our old ancestral home with seven rooms for the school.

"I soon realized we needed a laboratory, a good library, and a playground so I took out all my savings and also borrowed some money from my husband and bought half an acre of land with the plan to shift the school there one day. While I did not save anything for my children, I thought of the school children. I constructed the boundary wall for the land. I hope that compassionate people will help and donate to build a good school on the new land. "

Sharing another success story, she said, “During the COVID, the 9th and 10th standard boys dropped out of school and started working as they had to support the family as their fathers lost their jobs and had to sit idly at home.  The huge burden of finances fell on the young boys who were propelled to go out and work starting petty businesses in the area.  One morning, our Head Madam caught them running hither and thither not attending school.  She brought them to their parents and said, “If you have a financial problem, don’t pay any fees but let them come back to school, education will change their lives. 

"The boys returned to school, turned out to be very good in studies, and performed well and two boys got distinction. If the Head Madam had not taken that extra initiative, they would have left school and not done anything significant in their lives. We can say that with two lives made, two families are strengthened and these boys have now progressed to attaining their degrees, and are on the road to getting good jobs where in turn, they will support their families. We are happy because of our efforts the students can study.”

On keeping the school fees low, she said, “We have minimum fees, 300 per month, sometimes make it 200 or 100 or if they cannot pay, we don’t take any fees.  The question of salary comes, I used to pay the teachers from my pocket but now because I am retired it is not that possible to maintain that, but somehow we are dragging things along and making ends meet. One of the challenges we face is that the parents dump the entire responsibility of the students on us, not seeing the crucial role they too need to play in their children’s lives. They never check whether their child has done the homework, and here, we become the parents and caretakers. 

"We have eight teachers including me as I cannot afford to pay for more teachers. I also purchased eight computers out of my pocket for the students as in this digital age, it is imperative to know computers. I teach English and social science.  Teaching social science is one of the most delicate subjects, and I am very cautious as to how I present it in its right context. I teach the past, and the present and ask them what needs to be done in the future especially to make them think. While I point out that India is a democratically independent nation, there is always scope for improvement, and teach them how to think of ways to improve our nation. Awareness is paramount for the students to bring change. I work hard to make them think in a logical balanced way.

“To make them socially sensitive, I have taken great care to make the students respect all religions, I encourage them to read the Gita, Quran, Guru Granth Sahib, the Bible, and other holy books.  I teach them about the philosophy of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam. This focuses on a global perspective, prioritizing the collective well-being over individual or family interests.  We want our children to not only learn about it but implement it in action. This is the right tender age to teach them about harmony, universal love, and tolerance. Once they grow up, they will not understand nor will they easily accept new thoughts.  I tell to the children to join other children’s festivals and invite them to their festivals as well and this is how they will become friends.  I tell them, “What we dream of the Ram Raj and Acche Din is in your hands.  You can do it, humare zamana chale gaye, we are finished, you make a difference now.” I am very happy with my students, they love me very much, I love them, and all the teachers love them, our work is rewarding.”

She also said, “During Ramzan, we give Zakat, and my husband and me give the lion's share of our cut to the parents, giving them huge grocery bags so that a family of five can eat for a whole month.  We give them new clothes as well and it is a very happy time for all of us.  I must add that about 40% of the children in our schools are orphans as either parents have died or abandoned them, which is why I want to open a hostel to take care of the children. Behind every child is a sad story and there is an urgent need to help them.”

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Sairabanu Khan has three children - two sons and a daughter. Life is challenging for her as her elder son is mentally retarded so she exclusively takes care of him.  Her outreach to other children is also done with a candle of hope burning in her heart that one day, some blessing may fall upon him and heal his mental condition.  Her daughter may soon become an IAS officer as she cleared her CSE and her other son is doing his MBA.

She says with a smile, “Inshallah, my dream is at least four of my students from my school must become IAS officers while I say my daughter may become an IAS officer.”

Rita Farhat Mukand is an independent writer and author.