A class test

With a history of communal violence, it will be long before Malegaon forgets Friday. And nowhere is this more visible than on the school attendance registers

Malegaon is struggling to find its bearing. Three days after as many blasts tore through the festive afternoon and killed 30, 10 of them children, the town8217;s residents are finding it hard to put their lives back on the track. And nowhere is the emotional scar more visible than in the town8217;s schools.

Schools in the vicinity of Bada Kabrastan 8212; the heart of the carnage on September 8 8212; have seen dismal attendance after they reopened on Sunday. 8220;Normally, we have about 50 children attending each class. But since Sunday, we have seen only 15-20 of them come,8221; said Sayeed Asif Ali, 48, teacher at the Municipal Corporation8217;s Urdu School No. 40. The school lies merely 300 metres from the blast site.

8220;Most of the students, staying in the surrounding areas like Raunaqabad and Abbas Nagar, witnessed the blast and appear traumatised. All that these children have been talking about for the past few days is what they saw in the mosque that day,8221; he said.

The school with grades up to VIIth has 330 students, mostly children of powerloom workers. The school has lost three students while a number of students have lost a family member in the tragedy. Apart from the 10 under-12 children killed in the Shabe Barat-day attacks, more than 100 have been injured.

Eleven-year-old Wasif Mohammad is troubled talking about how he saw a man8217;s head being blown away in one of the blasts. Tanveer Ahmed, 12, student of the Moti Educational Society8217;s primary school, miraculously escaped death that afternoon but now looks completely disoriented.

What young victims in their situation would need is assisted healing, but specialised help seems a problem.

8220;I am not a psychiatrist but I realise that the trauma witnessed by the children could stunt their social, emotional and intellectual development. We are helpless because we are not equipped to give them the counselling they need,8221; says Farooque Altaf Hussain, head of Municipal School No. 5.

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The sheer numbers are loaded against pupils. Generally, a single teacher has to teach all the subjects to a class till VIIth grade. There are nearly 130 municipal schools in Malegaon with 613 teachers attending to 30,000 children 8212; a ratio of nearly 1:50. There are 109 Urdu municipal schools but they are facing a shortage of 150 teachers.

All, however, is not being left to the handicap of limited resources. Some teachers have taken it on themselves to educate the children about how to behave in times of crisis.

8220;We have been telling children how to behave during a blast or a stampede. We are also giving them basic tips on first aid,8221; said Akhlaque Ahmed Ansari, a municipal school teacher.

The chairman of Malegaon Municipal Corporation8217;s school board, Ateeque Ahmed Kamal, said the corporation would provide financial help and counselling to children hurt in the blasts. 8220;Along with the Nehru Sports Club, we are planning to create teams of counsellors who will go to all municipal schools to provide support,8221; he said.