Haji Public School


Haji Public School is a not-for-profit school established in 2009 by the Haji family in their ancestral village Breswana, in the Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir in northern India.

Overview

Haji Public School began operations on 4 May 2009 from Breswana village, the ancestral home of its founding members, the Haji family. The school started with two classes, lower and upper kindergarten, two teachers and 35 students studying in rooms of the Haji Cottage. The school grows with them each year. Haji Public School has over 350 students on its rolls, a permanent local staff of more than 20 teachers, and a running roster of dozens of Indian and international teaching volunteers.

History

Mr Saleem Haji of Breswana moved to Dubai with his family in early '80s. As he moved to Dubai for work, he made sure that he brought his family back to Breswana every summer. His daughter, Sabbah Haji, was born and raised in Dubai. Thus she always carried her ancestral home with herself even though she was not to live there. Sabbah Haji then shifted to Bengaluru where she completed her Bachelors in Commerce and worked in many organizations as an editor, writer, team lead, liaison and content manager. In 2008, the Amarnath struggle of Jammu and Kashmir broke out. Sabbah Haji's mother, Tasneem Haji witnessed her hometown, Kishtwar, being severely affected during the struggle. It was then that Sabbah Haji, who was in Bengaluru, quit her city life to return to her family in Jammu and Kashmir.
After Sabbah Haji returned to her native village Breswana in 2008, she saw that nearly two generations of villagers had no education, due to the apathetic attitude of successive governments and militancy. At over 7500 feet, with no motorable access to the rest of the state, education in this mountain region has languished in the past few decades. Although government schools do exist in the area, Sabbah dismisses them as hopeless and inefficient, lacking faculties, teachers and turning out degree students who could not read'. Her family wanted to provide these children with an education that would allow them to compete on equal grounds with the rest of the world. And thus the Haji Public School was born in 2009.
The school was built on land donated by her family and was initially set up under the 'Haji Amina Charity Trust' in Doda, founded by Mr Nasir Haji. It now functions under the Haji Education Foundation', a separate organization set up in 2011 specifically to promote education in the region. The Haji Education Foundation trustees are Mohd Saleem Haji, Tasneem Haji and Sabbah Haji. The Trust is also funded by donations from various members of the family and friends.
Since it started on 4 May 2009, the Haji Public School has just one objective – "to impart knowledge to those children who cannot avail of the academic facilities being provided to others, in more accessible cities". The cause was so strong that the village inhabitants helped build the school brick by brick. The villagers have brought up materials for the school on their backs. They wrote a petition which allowed the Haji family to start a school. Over the winter of 2008, Sabbah Haji and her mother, Tasneem Haji, trained two boys from the village in order to turn them into teachers. With no building to call their own initially, they worked out of two rooms in their ancestral house itself. They started at the ground level, teaching only the lower and upper kindergarten students. With Sabbah's strong and disciplined work ethic from Bengaluru and Tasneem's crucial 30 years’ worth teaching and school administration experience, they began the Haji Public School with about 25 kids. Today, the school has its own building and it is growing every year. The school now has over 350 students. The school has expanded its branches further in nearest villages such as Persholla and Shadiwan.

Mission

By setting up good schools in the region, the Haji family intends simply "to make education accessible to the inaccessible". The idea of good schooling will open up a new world to the students, will give them a foot in the door, provide them with opportunities previously denied to them, help them in achieving whatever desires and goals they may have for the future. The school aims to provide quality education to a village that hasn’t seen it in over 30 years.

Management

Nasir Haji (''Founder'')

Mr Nasir Haji is the main driving force and primary funder of the entire project from its inception to date. It was Nasir Haji's vision of bringing about long-lasting change through education in his ancestral village that gave birth to the idea for Haji Public School in 2008.

Sabbah Haji (''Director'')

Known as the "Rural-Rockstar" and "Haji-Baji", Sabbah Haji is the Director of Haji Public School. She belongs to the latest generation of Hajis to live and work in the village. She was born and raised in Dubai, UAE, did her college and worked in the online writing/editing space in Bangalore for almost a decade before moving back to Jammu and Kashmir in 2008. She has been involved with running the school since its inception.
Sabbah's functions at the school apart from regular teaching, are maintaining the accounts, material management, supervising and training staff, acquiring and looking after volunteers, and liaising and communications for Haji Public School particularly online and through social media. She runs the school Facebook and Tumblr and Tweets incessantly in her personal capacity as @imsabbah. Her personal relationship with the villagers and particularly the students helps in keeping the energy and motivation behind the school going.

Mohammad Saleem Haji (''Chief Advisor'')

Saleem Haji is the Chief Advisor for Haji Public School, and elected Sarpanch of Breswana. He is indispensable to the functioning of the school, overseeing construction, maintenance, material movement and liaising with the authorities, local government and local villagers. A respected elder of the village and community, Saleem Haji has very good relations with officials in the local government and education department which facilitates the smooth operations of the school.

Tasneem Haji (''Principal'')

Tasneem Haji has been the Principal of Haji Public School since its inception in 2009. She is the guiding force behind Haji Public School's functioning and ensures the school runs like a well-oiled machine, organised and in shipshape. Her personal connect and relationship with the villagers, particularly the women, is an added advantage in her role as Principal of the school.

Noah Haji (''Board Member and Special Advisor'')

Noah Haji is an Advisor with Haji Public School. He has been involved with the school from the inception and has helped drive the vision and strategy forward.

Babur Majid (''Board Member and Technical Director'')

Babur Majid is the Technical Director and Board Member of Haji Public School. Based out US, Babur helps School Management with various initiatives and projects.

Location

Haji Public School is located in a tiny village, Breswana, of Doda district in Jammu and Kashmir. Breswana lies in the mountains of Doda District spread out at an altitude of 7,200-7,500 ft. It is about a 7 km hike from the nearest cross-over bridge over the river Chenab in the rustic town of Premnagar. The setting is scenic, with huge grassy mountains, ponies and white frothy rivers. Arriving there from Jammu city takes a full day, in two stages as follows:
  1. Road Trip: Drive from Jammu to last possible road stop on mountain Premnagar - 6 to 8 hours approx.
  2. Mountain trail uphill on horseback/foot till final destination Breswana - 3 to 4 hours.

    Volunteers

Apart from the few regular teaching staff, the school relies heavily on the volunteers coming in from all around the world to teach the kids. The local staff members are capable of teaching till the 2nd grade only. Thus the higher classes require more qualified hands to take care of the children. The school has teaching staff of over 20, including full-time, local teachers as well as long term Indian and international teaching volunteers. The volunteers, who live among the villagers, teach for a period of three months. They spend time with students and make their efforts to erase negative impressions of outsiders through their selfless efforts, hard work, and dedication. The volunteers are not paid, but they are provided with food and lodging. The first long term volunteers were two young men, Felix Sebastian and Azon Linhares, who stayed over three months each. Azon subsequently joined Haji Public School as a permanent member and was Deputy Director of School Operations for three years. Till December 2016, Haji Public School has had over 62 teaching volunteers from Canada, Singapore, the US, South Africa, France and India. Several of them have returned for multiple long-term stints with Haji Public School since they find themselves invested in and attached to the students and the work to be genuinely satisfying.
  • Rana Safvi has volunteered at the Haji Public School for two complete months from 18 May 2016 to 19 July 2016.

    Campus and Facilities

  • Basketball Court
  • Computer Lab.
  • A Library.
  • A Playground.
  • Wall Climbing area.
  • Table Tennis.
  • Music players.

    Language

The school language of Instruction is English.

Fees

The school asks for a nominal amount as fees. According to the school authority, this has been done deliberately to ensure that parents of the kids feel a sense of entitlement towards the school. Since it is an extremely poverty-stricken area, on the recommendation of Saleem Haji, who knows each and every family in the village, about 33% of the families who cannot afford the fee are provided with free education. They also have a rule which states that if there are 3 siblings in a family, the girl sibling will receive free education. If there is no girl child, then the youngest boy receives free education.

On Television

'&TV's family game show Deal Ya No Deal saw a special moment when Sabbah Haji participated in the show to win the money and use it to improve the infrastructure of her school. Among the 25 contestants that participated from Kashmir to encourage her motive, were Kashmiri folk actor and director, Amir Bashir and Twitter India Head, Raheel Khursheed. The show also witnessed the presence of the renowned author of The Reluctant Detective and Once upon a Crush - Kiran Manral.

On Social Media

Sabbah Haji uses her and her family's personal contacts and also actively promotes her school on social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and through blogs/school website to attract not just volunteers but also donations in cash and kind. She used Twitter to raise awareness of the existence of her school by sharing pictures and videos, which led to an influx of volunteers and even necessary equipment from across the world. Sabbah Haji updates daily happenings about the school and her village on and . Sabbah Haji represents the school outside, on social media and at various conferences. At CONVERGE 2016, YKA's flagship event, Haji shared her powerful story through a series of photos of breaking barriers and starting change to an audience of over 1500 people.

Achievements and awards

Not only the kids at Haji Public School able to speak fluent English, but they are also ardent followers of Lord of The Rings, sports and even English music. One of the greatest changes Sabbah has seen in the kids has been the rise in their confidence levels.

2015

  • Participated in the &TV's family game show "Deal Ya No Deal".

    2013

  • L'oreal Paris Femina Award 2013 for Education
  • CII invited HPS to share its story at the Chennai conference.
  • March Issue of Seminar mag, featured the full HPS story, from inception to onward goals.

    2012

  • Arundhati Roy and Sanjay Kak visited HPS..
  • MSNBC featured HPS children's video on their show, 2012.
  • Jezebel has featured HPS' Annual Day video on their site.

    2011

  • A small write up by The Indian Institute of Geographical Studies regarding HPS.
  • A write up by blog "Mommy Knows Best" regarding HPS.

    Future

The school is also expanding now. With their main branch in Breswana, they have built two more branches in the nearby villages, Persholla and Shadiwan. Although the school rests entirely on Nasir Haji's fund now, it is desperately trying to come up with a sustainable model which can keep the school running for years to come. Not only are they aiming to expand till the 12th grade, they also want to set up a college. They already have a land on which they wish to set up such an institution.
HPS is hoping to get more and more volunteers and is even willing to pay teachers a salary if they wish to work full-time. They ask people who have a desire to teach, to come and explore, and help the children.