Mumbai: Andheri night school has auto driver, security guard, anganwadi worker among students

A class in session at the night school. Almost all students work during the day or have family obligations

Mehboob drives a rickshaw from 5 am to 5 pm. Yet, when he opens his books at 7 pm at the Ratra Vidyalaya in Andheri, he's all attention. "My brain feels fresh during those two hours in school,'' says the 35-year-old.

Needing a Std VIII pass qualification for his driving licence, Mehboob approached the municipal school in which he had studied up to Std III as a child, only to be directed to the free night school running on the same premises. Mehboob completed his Std VIII but has stayed on to finish Std X. Though he had originally studied in the Hindi medium and Ratra Vidyalaya is Marathi medium, the teachers make it easy for him, he says.

Night school students in the computer lab at Vidyanidhi, Juhu

Mirabai Sanap too needed a Std VIII qualification when she became an anganwadi worker. Early marriage had forced the 46-year-old to drop out of her village school. Decades later, she has returned to studies at Ratra Vidyalaya.

The best endorsement for a school comes from its students. Ex-student Mohan Ingale can't stop praising his teachers, starting from principal V J Rupavate, who comes to class early and on Sundays to teach students at their convenience. "The teachers looked after me more than my parents did,'' says the 33-year-old.

When he joined the school, Ingale was delivering computers. Today, he's a qualified computer mechanic, self-employed now because the lockdown cost him his job. Mahindra Kambli, a peon at Bhavan's College, Andheri, for the last 18 years, has a chance to be promoted as library attendant, now that he's finished his Std X courtesy Ratra Vidyalaya.

The students with a science competition prize

"Why should people spend their lives as delivery boys, peons and housemaids? If they pass Std X, they can look for better jobs,'' says Sanjeev Mantri, whose father Sriram founded Upanagar Shikshan Mandal (USM) in 1956, with the help of a few fellow teachers. Having had to struggle to get educated after his father died early, Sriram Mantri, then a school teacher, wanted to help others like him.

Ratra Vidyalaya was his first school, started in 1957. He knew a night school had to be near a railway station to attract working people, so he rented four rooms at the Cama Road Municipal School near Andheri station. Four years later, he started the second such school, Vikas Ratra Vidyalaya near Santacruz Station.

In 1971, Mantri founded Juhu's Vidyanidhi School for low-income parents. Today, like USM's other educational institutions, Vidyanidhi High School is much sought-after. Its computer and science labs are used by the night school students on holidays.

Students get ready for a session on sports

Unfortunately, not all of them can avail of this advantage. Rajaram Dawre cannot afford to keep his shoe repair stall closed even for a day, especially since the lockdown has hit him hard. It's equally hard for women: both Mirabai Sanap and anganwadi teacher Aadil Khan, who went back to school after her children had grown up, wish they could have attended class regularly, but family came first. They have fond memories, however, of acing sports events and handicraft competitions at the school.

Unlike the others, Raamana Dusalwar didn't drop out of school to help support his family; he was expelled for being too naughty. Now a sober 18-year-old, he diligently logs on to Ratra Vidyalaya's online classes every evening on his phone, hoping to ultimately enter college, and find a better job than his last one as a security guard at a construction site, which he lost in the lockdown.

As adults, these students find it easier to understand their lessons than they could as children. Where they can't, they get help not only from their teachers, but also from their children and, sometimes, from their wives.

Mehboob, an auto owner-driver, needed to clear Std VIII for a driving licence. He has now stayed to finish Std X

Student numbers were already reducing, says Sanjeev Mantri, because adults today prefer to appear for the Std X exam privately. But the lockdown made it worse: it prevented teachers from going to bastis on their annual hunt for fresh students, accompanied by their alumni. Open House at Vidyanidhi's Marathi school was used as an opportunity to urge parents to resume their education. With schools closed, that too has stopped. Mantri, however, feels the classrooms may again be full; all it takes is for educated Mumbaikars to motivate the many school drop-outs around them.

1957
The year in which Ratra Vidyalaya started