Transforming Lives of Needy, Marginalised Students

NOOR NAWAZ KHAN is founder and director of The Hind Guru Academy which is a premier Institute for NEET, IIT-JEE (Main & Advanced) Coaching Centre in Delhi NCR. The main objective of institutions run by him is to transform lives of needy and marginalised students. In an interview with MOHD NAUSHAD KHAN, he said, despite…

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Mohammad Naushad Khan

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NOOR NAWAZ KHAN is founder and director of The Hind Guru Academy which is a premier Institute for NEET, IIT-JEE (Main & Advanced) Coaching Centre in Delhi NCR. The main objective of institutions run by him is to transform lives of needy and marginalised students. In an interview with MOHD NAUSHAD KHAN, he said, despite all odds the performance of students under Madani 100 project has been encouraging. There are challenges as well which we can overcome with cooperation and support of our well-wishers and all those who wish to empower the community through education.

 

 

What has been the progress made after the launch of Madani 100 projects. Are you satisfied with the progress made so far?

The progress is that we have been able to expand our reach. The huge popularity, involvement and keen interest of Maulana Arshad Madani sahib in this project helped us to spread the message far and wide. It was very well received by students also. It was launched in the month of September 2020 amidst strict Covid protocols when all educational institutions were closed. The response would have been much better if the educational institutions had not been closed. There was a great problem in travelling and all those students from outside Delhi could not avail of this benefit due to strict Covid guidelines and restrictions. But even then the response we got was encouraging and from 20 states we received registrations. In this period we managed to open 9 offline centres and one online centre close to Delhi and neighbouring areas, including Uttar Pradesh. More or less it was satisfactory.

However, the students who were out of the educational environment for around one year and a half could not give their best and that is why their performance was not as desired. Our target was 100 students. However, Maulana Arshad Madani was even ready to support 500 students. Due to pandemic we were not able to get the complete number; this was one challenge. We believe in quality selection because after the launch of any successful project the ultimate thing one may look at is the final result and that is why we had a benchmark for selection. We think whatever number of students we have selected, their result should be good. We will conduct this programme every year and we will try to do such a project for other courses also including UPSC. Students will give their best performance once everything gets normal.

 

How have the selected students performed?

The average score of students is below 50 per cent while we expected 75 per cent performance. As these students were from marginalised sections who had very little access to other means because of the pandemic and lockdown and therefore their performance was not as expected. But despite all odds due to pandemic students who were selected for the first batch performed well in NEET exam. Our six students scored more than 600 out of 720. Also six students who scored less than 600 have managed to get government seats in state quota. Many more can find seats in private colleges. The overall performance can be said to be satisfactory at the initial stage. Our teachers, students and their parents are satisfied and we are happy that being first time they have given a better result. We will continue to improve and will try to give best result in the near future. We will keep on setting our target year after year and will try to achieve accordingly. Our mission is to contribute to the society and the country as a whole through excellence in medical, scientific and technical education and research.

 

How has pandemic impacted your academy and what do you think should be the way forward?

Most of the students studying in any institution in Delhi, including those in Jamia, are from outside Delhi. And because of the pandemic they have not been able to make their mind to come to Delhi for educational purpose. Also because of the economic impact on all moving to Delhi for education is a big challenge these days. The rise of Covid from first wave, second and possibly now to the third wave has not only disturbed our educational system but also impacted one and all in one way or the other. Through your publication, I would like to seek cooperation and support from all social and religious leaders, academicians, institutions, intellectuals and well-wishers after looking at our data base, performance, commitment and result we have produced to support our endeavour so that we can make a difference by transforming lives of needy and marginalised students. We are here to foster the spirit of learning and pursuit of knowledge among the youth of this country and to develop smart, erudite, and humble individuals who can influence positive change in society.

We wish to produce quality students who can become an asset to this country and community by contributing towards nation building after becoming successful. Fees have never been our priority. Fees are only for our sustainability. We are providing scholarship which means almost free coaching which include food and hostel facility to 74 students out of 250 students. But in the last two years pandemic has also impacted us to a great extent. For example, one student who has scored 587 in NEET, has lost her father, is living in one room. She is domicile of Delhi but unable to get admission in any Delhi government college. And because of that she has to prepare for next year but has no money. We are providing her free coaching including hostel. Just for token amount we asked for Rs. 3000 if they can afford. There are many such cases where we are providing almost free coaching including hostel. When such students approach us, we just cannot turn away and for this we need to have some support mechanism to serve meaningfully.

 

Do you have any plan to meet the threat due to Omicron so that competitive environment of students is not affected?

Keeping in mind the occurrences of pandemic again and again, it has given us an option of online classes. It also cost less as compared to offline classes. It is easily accessible and it gives wider connectivity. So keeping that in mind, we have planned for complete online setup and we have also started this project and very soon we can conduct our all classes online and can provide online stuff for all subjects and everything which students may require for their competition. We will go for live classes and recorded lecture for students where students can avail of this opportunity through their mobiles and laptops or computers from anywhere in the world. The material for our study point where mostly students are of secondary schools, for university competitions and for NEET and JEE competitions will be provided to students during the pandemic. After that we have also plan to go online courses for all competitions in the near future.