‘Curfew Classes’: Schooling in the times of unrest

With 170 students and 14 teachers, inspiring initiative of young trio goes from strength to strength

Education continued to blossom in Srinagar’s Shalimar area along the banks of Dal Lake while the whole valley was witnessing curfews and continued shutdown after the killing of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani on 8th July.
A group of three youth- Inam-ul-Rasool, Sheikh Majid and Gazala Ali- of Shalimar decided to start free coaching programme for young students in the vicinity who couldn’t attend schools because of the prevailing unrest.
“The thought of starting these classes came after the media attention turned towards the academic loss which students were facing due to continuous shutdown. We decided to reach out to young kids of the locality and asked them to join our initiative if they wanted to study,” said Inam, convener of Curfew Classes.
The journey for educating young children wasn’t without hurdles for these young people and they had to take into account both the sides amid the continuous unrest.
“We couldn’t start this initiative from our homes because we had to think about the safety of our families. The forces weren’t too friendly during that time and then there were these protest programmes which we had to respect. So we had to take a holistic view before initiating this programme,” said Sheikh Majid, co-founder of Curfew classes.
The young trio started the classes with 15 students inside a hall provided by the local masjid committee.
“Initially we started these tuition classes titled ‘Curfew Classes’ from a single hall provided by Abu Bakar Masjid with the help of Fayaz Ahmad, an eminent member of our locality. In the beginning we only started free coaching programme for students of classes 7 to 10 and we only had four teachers. But as students started to pour in we took up three rooms in one of the buildings in the vicinity,” said Inam.
Pertinently, the Curfew Classes have expanded since its inception and today it has 170 students from Nursery to 10th class and it operates in four rooms with 14 teachers now. Teachers of the initiative belong to different walks of life. Some of them are themselves students.
Some of local residents have played an instrumental role in the success of this initiative. The three rooms which became the backbone of Curfew Classes were provided free of cost by Gulzar Ahmad Bhat, landlord of the building. Another local Javaid Ahmad Nahami provided his lawn for extra-curricular activities of the students.
Inam-ul-Rasool, Sheikh Majid and Gazala had to devise their schedule according to the feasibility of students and teachers keeping in mind curfew and the protest calendar.
“We started classes from 6 am to 9 am in the morning and then 6 pm to 8 pm in the evening keeping in mind the curfew and the protest calendar. We discussed the timings of classes with the local Mohalla Committee and they assured their full support. “Some people have been very helpful like a university professor who donated Rs 2000 to support our initiative,” said Inam.
“However, while the initiative evoked praise, we had to face wrath from some people who called us many names like government agents, paid organization and even accused us of trying to break the protest calendar,” he added.
The management of ‘Curfew Classes’ initiative has organized painting as well as badminton competitions for children so that they get a glimpse of normal life amid the unrest.
Recently, the ‘Curfew Classes’ were rechristened as ‘Societal Classes’ keeping in view the efforts put in by the society to make this initiative a success.

Related posts