A Simple Solution to the Issue of School Fees for Needy Students : Muhammad Maroof Shah

A Simple Solution to the Issue of School Fees for Needy Students

Muhammad Maroof Shah 

A Passionate Plea on behalf of Needy Students 

Dear Teachers and their Team Leader in Educational Institutions

We need only seven minutes of kind attention from our very dear teachers – nation builders and role models.

The Problem 

Around 20 percent students (5 to 35% in most schools known to us) in different schools (especially private low fee schools and govt schools, especially higher secondary schools and colleges) face fees clearance issues, stationary support or other related educational support issues. We need per student around 2700-5000/year for proper support. This can be met easily from the school resources itself or voluntary contributions of teachers and some students. Let us see how.

We may assume one teacher, as staff in the respective schools, per 20 students, in average school, amongst which 2-5 may be struggling financially. 

DIFFERENT SOLUTIONS 

    • Any three teachers volunteer to contribute charity from accrued interest on GP fund or

    • All teachers consent to do daily charity of Rs 10 or

    • All teachers contribute sadaqa al-fitr to education of needy students or

    • All teachers contribute at least 20% of zakat/ushr duRs 5000 as zakat due to them to needy students.

    • At least 25% students choose to voluntarily contribute Rs 5/day on account of obligation of daily charity due on every joint every day the sun rises according to hadith in Bukhari and Muslim on behalf of their families to education of needy fellow students

DETAILED NOTE ON THESE SOLUTIONS 

We assign financial needs of 3 students to one teacher and 4 to Principal/Head Master. In an institution we have, mostly, 10-30 faculty that can cover the needs of 34 to 94 students. We need to see how one teacher can arrange 15 k and Principal 25 k to cater to the target of 3 and 4 students. Poor fund already available with schools can be mobilized to cover all cases or at least significant percentage of them. What remains can be covered by the following:

1) Interest accrued on GP fund (beyond 6.5% which is mandatory for employees and interest on which we will not count here as there are different interpretations for it including treating it as gift from the State) which is on average 2.5 lacs (1-5 lacs) for all non NPS employees. As such interest to be spared by average teacher is 7900/lac or around 20 k/annum. Many people do separate the interest amount on their deposits including GP fund for use by the needy without expectation of reward. What better use of interest money than financing education?  

2) Charity (Daan) – that is enjoined on all people in different religious, ethical, mystical and even secular traditions in general and gels with value orientation of NEP – for making it sustainable, scalable and not burdensome and almost universally doable, we can pilot daily sadaqa (youmya daan) @10/day/family (or teacher and some students whose parents may volunteer for the idea) and teachers are expected to be role models and can spare Rs10/day and convince at least some other people/students or their parents in their contact to join this idea of supporting education through daily daan. He can connect at least 10 other persons in a year to the noble idea of daily charity and from the next year community will support the education of the needy students through this endeavor. 

3) Choosing between Professional Beggars/Parasitic Class and Needy Students Should a teacher give charity to education or for mostly professional beggars and other unverified far off people or mostly parasitic class or on charitable causes which don’t work professionally or productively? Isn’t it possible to divert to education of students he knows personally in schools? Charity is best spent on one’s kith and ken and those in the community/locality one knows personally. All records are available with schools to confirm genuineness of student’s claim for financial help. So all teachers can route at least fitrana in 2026 for education and this will cater to the needs of all students as around 1 lac teachers in schools, colleges and universities of Kashmir will make 100000x500= 5 crores which would be enough to cater to thousands of students. If we add zakat from only 10 percent teachers (10 k) to the tune of Rs 10k (which is usually due from every teacher and for many its multiples will be due) we get 10000x10000=100000000 or 10 crore which can cover many more cases. If only two teachers in a school or five teachers in a college give properly calculated zakat to education, routine educational support can be met. This would also create a good example for discouraging professional beggars who take loin’s share in charity.

4) Student Compassion Club Ask students to create a club of compassion in schools/colleges which can collect from all teachers and many students some minimum amount (though beyond that minimum more amount would be appreciated). Every Friday morning prayer should have few minutes for rewarding the student compassion club that manages within the week best resource collection. Friday or Monday can also be chosen to collect things in kind/cash that would go to the compassion store and create further support system for students. 

Given all these options it is not proper that any fees case should reach for help to any outside school organization. Whole school faculty becomes guilty if even a single student drops education or needs to beg for resources from organizations.

 

Let us ponder on the following points

WHERE GOES INTEREST ON GP FUND?

Given 6.5% is the compulsory amount to be kept in GP fund, the question is where goes the rest kept voluntarily above or beyond this 6.5%, especially the zakat and interest thereof assuming no zakat or no problem of interest (given some scholars interpret this as gift from the government). Assuming the lowest limit of 1 lac as balance amount for a year for most, (almost all) employees, minimum amount to be paid as zakat and separated for the poor amount of interest on this one lac is around 10 k (2500 zakat and 7900 interest). Assuming at least half the senior/non-NPS employees have above 3 lacs balance above and beyond 6.5%, zakat and interest to be kept for the needy is around 32000/employee. Assuming 30 employees in an average secondary school/higher secondary/college, amount due from them @32000 from 15 senior/non-NPS employees comes to significant 480000 which can cover all the cases in the institution. If only 20% employees choose to spare only interest money, leaving zakat for their kith and ken, it is enough for all the routine needy cases in a year. Employees owe God for 2025 only zakat of at least 10 k (if spouse or any other family member is also employee, 20k), 32 k interest money which must be spared for the poor, and soft loan of 1 lac for some days, if not weeks if their account balance. 

DAILY/REGULAR CHARITY IN INDIAN TRADITIONS 

Al-Biruni mentions the practice of charity and almsgiving among Hindus as he observed during his stay. He wrote, "It is obligatory with them (Hindus) every day to give alms as much as possible."

After the taxes, there are different opinions on how to spend their income. Some destine one-ninth of it for alms.[31] Others divide this income (after taxes) into four portions. One fourth is destined for common expenses, the second for liberal works of a noble mind, the third for alms, and the fourth for being kept in reserve.

— Abū Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī, Tarikh Al-Hind, 11th century CE

Muslims have been doing daily sadaqah as well and our pious ancestors spent around one third of their resources on charity. Now we mostly don't spend even 2.5 percent. And sadaqah of Rs 10 on daily basis is done by not even 0.1 percent. Blame yourself if you struggle to raise funds for any known case for treatment or education fees or debt cleareance. God says give me qard hasan and guarentees He will return multiplied and we fail to understand God's guarentee and keep money fixed/locked in gold or land or lockers while some of our relatives and neighbours and students are gasping for a penny. We can't be truly happy in life if we disregard God's order for sparing our resources unconditionally for our near and dear ones or community. God gave us everything and who are we to refuse to spend the way He said – anything beyond our needs is to be given away or at least spared as qard-i hasan for others. A believer can't leave money to be idle. He must invest in business or local community care. No excuses of mistrust in the presence of credible guarentees from credit co-operative and number of people whose word can be more credible than even bank guarentees.

NEP 2020

• NEP 2020 sees charity and service “not as extracurricular activities, but as fundamental outcomes of an education system designed to produce well-rounded, ethically grounded individuals committed to societal well-being.” Explicitly includes "lessons in seva/service and participation in community service programmes" as core to holistic education. NEP develops “empathy, respect for diversity, and a sense of civic duty” besides encouraging traits like honesty, compassion and responsibility.”

MATHEMATICS of CHARITY 

A simple lesson in mathematics hides a solution to the problems of resources for educational support and liquidation of loans of families of students and staff.

This lesson is the power of saving Rs 1 and donating Rs 1 daily (to be collected on weekly/monthly basis) in creating employment and resource base for all students.

100 students in a school daily save Rs 1 and donate Rs 1. How much they all earn in five years from savings assuming only 10% returns on investments and how much money gets available for helping the students?Students are assumed to keep investing and donating for 5th onwards for 5 years. 

A student can choose from Rs 1 to 10 daily for both investment and donation. Let calculations be made for Rs 1 and Rs 10.

An alternative idea is invest part of Eidi (Rs 1000) in different businesses and donate for fellow students similar amount on another Eid.

Simultaneous investment and donation would promote entrepreneurship at student level and embody learning while earning approach. Donations would be spent on 10 most needy students’ fee and livelihood support through silent partnership with various farming/manufacturing or craft based enterprises. 

 Every school can daily generate enough resources on morning prayer from voluntary contributions of all students – in kind, in cash, in the form of time or any service for ten minutes on daily basis or one hour/week – to create resources for every and not just needy students and create sustained income on regular basis from next year for students as they get tied up, as shareholders, with local businesses providing silent income.

 All world religions, great saints, major educationists and number of secular thinkers insist on volunteering with one’s own resources for good causes. All students can connect, as part of the training in values of care and compassion, at least 10 other students/relatives/neighbours/friends to contribute Rs1-10 daily as daily charity for education and loan waiver of needy families. Here the role of the head of institution is vital. Let us mobilize the idea of Rs 1/student/day as contribution from every student (DPS gathers Rs10/ from every student currently) and Rs. 10/day from every teacher as part of their value education. All great thinkers of education and NEP 2020 talk about value education and for this action is the model and what better model than networking compassion through Rs1-10 model?

A Simple Solution to the Issue of School Fees for Needy Students

Muhammad Maroof Shah 

A Passionate Plea on behalf of Needy Students 

Dear Teachers and their Team Leader in Educational Institutions

We need only seven minutes of kind attention from our very dear teachers – nation builders and role models.

The Problem 

Around  20 percent students (5 to 35% in most schools known to us) in different schools (especially private low fee schools and govt schools, especially higher secondary schools and colleges) face fees clearance issues, stationary support or other related educational support issues. We need per student around 2700-5000/year for proper support. This can be met easily from the school resources itself or voluntary contributions of teachers and some students. Let us see how.

We may assume one teacher, as staff in the respective schools, per 20 students, in average school, amongst which 2-5 may be struggling financially. 

DIFFERENT SOLUTIONS 

    • Any three teachers volunteer to contribute charity from accrued interest on GP fund or

    •  All teachers consent to do daily charity of Rs 10 or

    • All teachers contribute sadaqa al-fitr to education of needy students or

    • All teachers contribute at least 20% of zakat/ushr duRs 5000 as zakat due to them to needy students.

    • At least 25% students choose to voluntarily contribute Rs 5/day on account of obligation of daily charity due on every joint every day the sun rises according to hadith in Bukhari and Muslim on behalf of their families to education of needy fellow students

DETAILED NOTE ON THESE SOLUTIONS 

We assign financial needs of 3 students to one teacher and 4 to Principal/Head Master.  In an institution we have, mostly, 10-30 faculty that can cover the needs of 34 to 94 students. We need to see how one teacher can arrange 15 k and Principal 25 k to cater to the target of 3 and 4 students. Poor fund already available with schools can be mobilized to cover all cases or at least significant percentage of them. What remains can be covered by the following:

1) Interest accrued on GP fund (beyond 6.5% which is mandatory for employees and interest on which we will not count here as there are different interpretations for it including treating it as gift from the State) which is on average 2.5 lacs (1-5 lacs) for all non NPS employees.  As such interest to be spared by average teacher is 7900/lac or around 20 k/annum. Many people do separate the interest amount on their deposits including GP fund for use by the needy without expectation of reward.  What better use of interest money than financing education?  

2) Charity (Daan) – that is enjoined on all people in different religious, ethical, mystical and even secular traditions in general and gels with value orientation of NEP – for making it sustainable, scalable and  not burdensome and almost universally doable, we can pilot daily sadaqa (youmya daan) @10/day/family (or teacher and some students whose parents may volunteer for the idea) and teachers are expected to be role models and can spare Rs10/day and convince at least some other people/students or their parents in their contact to join this idea of supporting education through daily daan. He can connect at least 10 other persons in a year to the noble idea of daily charity and from the next year community will support the education of the needy students through this endeavor. 

3) Choosing between Professional Beggars/Parasitic Class and Needy Students Should a teacher give charity to education or for mostly professional beggars and other unverified far off people or mostly parasitic class or on charitable causes which don’t work professionally or productively? Isn’t it possible to divert to education of students he knows personally in schools? Charity is best spent on one’s kith and ken and those in the community/locality one knows personally. All records are available with schools to confirm genuineness of student’s claim for financial help. So all teachers can route at least fitrana in 2026 for education and this will cater to the needs of all students as around 1 lac teachers in schools, colleges and universities of Kashmir will make 100000x500= 5 crores which would be enough to cater to thousands of students. If we add zakat from only 10 percent teachers (10 k) to the tune of Rs 10k (which is usually due from every teacher and for many its multiples will be due) we get 10000x10000=100000000 or 10 crore which can cover many more cases. If only two teachers in a school or five teachers in a college give properly calculated zakat to education, routine educational support can be met. This would also create a good example for discouraging professional beggars who take loin’s share in charity.

4) Student Compassion Club Ask students to create a club of compassion in schools/colleges which can collect from all teachers and many students some minimum amount (though beyond that minimum more amount would be appreciated). Every Friday morning prayer should have few minutes for rewarding the student compassion club that manages within the week best resource collection. Friday or Monday can also be chosen to collect things in kind/cash that would go to the compassion store and create further support system for students. 

Given all these options it is not proper that any fees case should reach for help to any outside school organization. Whole school faculty becomes guilty if even a single student drops education or needs to beg for resources from organizations.

 

Let us ponder on the following points

WHERE GOES INTEREST ON GP FUND?

Given 6.5% is the compulsory amount to be kept in GP fund, the question is where goes the rest kept voluntarily above or beyond this 6.5%, especially the zakat and interest thereof assuming no zakat or no problem of interest (given some scholars  interpret this as gift from the government). Assuming the lowest limit of 1 lac as balance amount for a year for most, (almost all) employees, minimum amount to be paid as zakat and separated for the poor amount of interest on this one lac is around 10 k (2500 zakat and 7900 interest). Assuming at least half the senior/non-NPS employees have above 3 lacs balance above and beyond 6.5%, zakat and interest to be kept for the needy is around 32000/employee. Assuming 30 employees in an average secondary school/higher secondary/college, amount due from them @32000 from 15 senior/non-NPS employees comes to significant 480000 which can cover all the cases in the institution. If only 20% employees choose to spare only interest money, leaving zakat for their kith and ken, it is enough for all the routine needy cases in a year. Employees owe God for 2025 only zakat of at least 10 k (if spouse or any other family member is also employee, 20k), 32 k interest money which must be spared for the poor, and soft loan of 1 lac for some days, if not weeks if their account balance. 

DAILY/REGULAR CHARITY IN INDIAN TRADITIONS 

Al-Biruni mentions the practice of charity and almsgiving among Hindus as he observed during his stay. He wrote, "It is obligatory with them (Hindus) every day to give alms as much as possible."

After the taxes, there are different opinions on how to spend their income. Some destine one-ninth of it for alms.[31] Others divide this income (after taxes) into four portions. One fourth is destined for common expenses, the second for liberal works of a noble mind, the third for alms, and the fourth for being kept in reserve.

— Abū Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī, Tarikh Al-Hind, 11th century CE

Muslims have been doing daily sadaqah as well and our pious ancestors spent around one third of their resources on charity. Now we mostly don't spend even 2.5 percent. And sadaqah of Rs 10 on daily basis is done by not even 0.1 percent. Blame yourself if you struggle to raise funds for any known case for treatment or education fees or debt cleareance. God says give me qard hasan and guarentees He will return multiplied and we fail to understand God's guarentee and keep money fixed/locked in gold or land or lockers while some of our relatives and neighbours and students  are gasping for a penny. We can't be truly  happy in life if we disregard God's order for sparing our resources unconditionally for our near and dear ones or community. God gave us everything and who are we to refuse to spend the way He said – anything beyond our needs is to be given away or at least spared as qard-i hasan for others. A believer can't leave money to be idle. He must invest in business or local community care. No excuses of mistrust in the presence of credible guarentees from credit co-operative and number of people whose word can be more credible than even bank guarentees.

NEP 2020

• NEP 2020 sees charity and service “not as extracurricular activities, but as fundamental outcomes of an education system designed to produce well-rounded, ethically grounded individuals committed to societal well-being.” Explicitly includes "lessons in seva/service and participation in community service programmes" as core to holistic education. NEP  develops “empathy, respect for diversity, and a sense of civic duty” besides encouraging traits like honesty, compassion and responsibility.”

MATHEMATICS of CHARITY 

A simple lesson in mathematics hides a solution to the problems of resources for educational support and liquidation of loans of families of students and staff.

This lesson is the power of saving Rs 1 and donating Rs 1 daily (to be collected on weekly/monthly basis) in creating employment and resource base for all students.

100 students in a school daily save Rs 1 and donate Rs 1. How much they all earn in five years from savings assuming only 10% returns on investments and how much money gets available for helping the students?Students are assumed to keep investing and donating for 5th onwards for 5 years. 

A student can choose from Rs 1 to 10 daily for both investment and donation. Let calculations be made for Rs 1 and Rs 10.

An alternative idea is invest part of Eidi (Rs 1000) in different businesses and donate for fellow students similar amount on another Eid.

Simultaneous investment and donation would promote entrepreneurship at student level and embody learning while earning approach. Donations would be spent on 10 most needy students’ fee and livelihood support through silent partnership with various farming/manufacturing or craft based enterprises. 

 Every school can daily generate enough resources on morning prayer from voluntary contributions of all students – in kind, in cash, in the form of time or any service for ten minutes on daily basis or one hour/week – to create resources for every and not just needy students and create sustained income on regular basis from next year for students as they get tied up, as shareholders, with local businesses providing silent income.

 All world religions, great saints, major educationists and number of secular thinkers insist on volunteering with one’s own resources for good causes. All students can connect, as part of the training in values of care and compassion, at least 10 other students/relatives/neighbours/friends to contribute Rs1-10 daily as daily charity for education and loan waiver of needy families. Here the role of the head of institution is vital. Let us mobilize the idea of Rs 1/student/day as contribution from every student (DPS gathers Rs10/ from every student currently) and Rs. 10/day from every teacher as part of their value education. All great thinkers of education and NEP 2020 talk about value education and for this action is the model and what better model than networking compassion through Rs1-10 model?