NAFEESA TEACHER: 25 YEARS OF TEACHING SANSKRIT IN MUSLIM-MAJORITY CLASSES
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| Nafeesa Teacher, AUP School, Irumbuchola, near Vengara, Malappuram |
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For the last 25 years, Nafeesa Teacher has been teaching Sanskrit to a majority of Muslim students of her class at AUP School, Irumbuchola, near Vengara, Malappuram. This isn’t because there is no choice for the students or there wasn’t any choice for Teacher when she took up the study of the ancient language.
Although
the school offers Malayalam, Arabic and Urdu in addition to Sanskrit, it
is the Sanskrit classes that attract the most number of students.
“Sanskrit
opens up a mine of interesting stories and anecdotes from mythology, which
makes very interesting reading for students,” explains Nafeesa Teacher.
“Besides, Sanskrit being the mother of all languages would also
help the students learn other languages more easily, in their High School
classes.”
She
says the local people have extended to her unstinted support.
This year, of the 34 wards who chose Sanskrit as 1st
language, 26 including 19 girls, belong to Muslim community.
Why
did she choose the study of Sanskrit decades ago?
It was based on the advice of her Arabic teacher, T.K.Majeed Madani
after her SSLC examination. And
though she had no prior knowledge, she was quickly attracted to the
language and could pass the Sanskrit course for teachers with good marks
under her mentor P.C.Kuttikrishnan.
Nafeesa
Teacher is confident that she can communicate to students the simple truth
that all religions espouse the same message of love and goodness.
Nafeesa Teacher's classroom
Courtesy: K.R.Rajeev, New Indian Express, July 13, 2002
Contributed by: Administrator
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