Budgam, Oct 31: With an aim to “tackle” illiteracy rate among backward communities, Muntazir Mehdi, 24, from central Kashmir’s Budgam district choose to establish a school over his engineering career.
“Budgam is educationally backward and the objective behind foundation of the school is to tackle illiteracy rate in the district,” says Mehdi, a native of Gojra hamlet, who has founded the school “Genesis Global Academy” in Patwaw village here.
Mehdi did his schooling from a local private school in Budgam Township. After 12th standard, he moved to Noida where he pursued Bachelors of Technology in Biotechnology from Amity University.
After his return to Valley in 2016, Mehdi started construction of the school and in November 2017 he called for admissions. “It has been a year now, the school is rapidly growing and I’ve enjoyed the entire process. Seven teachers and six non-teaching staff members are working at the school; besides, 102 students are enrolled here,” says Budgam youth, who acts as a chairman of the school.
He says that he got many job opportunities but decided contribute in the field of education.
While sharing the experience with Kashmir Images from being a student to chairman of a school, Mehdi says, “It wasn’t something that actually struck my mind all of a sudden. I completed my high schooling from a school in Budgam and my father was one of its managing members. So I can say idea actually came from my father only. I also wanted the same and had to do with scalable technology that was markedly different from other schools.”
In response to a question, why any student would join his school, when there are dozens of educational institutions, he answers, “Our school has an edge over others in terms of teaching, technology, availability of audio visual aids and vibrant atmosphere for teaching and learning process. It’ll be a next generation school which holds much broader significance than just something that is meant to educate next generation of students.”
Chairman of the school also adds that there would be special arrangements for the needy students. “Keeping in view the economic conditions of the students, an endeavour is undertaken to accommodate the needy students by providing them rebate in the school fees keeping in view the qualitative aptitude of the students.”
Mehdi says that he has a plan to start higher education at his school in the coming years. “Currently we have students from nursery to class 5th. In near future upgradation of the school will be undertaken in a phased manner and it is also the cherished dream of the founders to provide qualitative education up to senior secondary level. Infrastructure in terms of building and land is already available for the students up to 12th standard.”
