Islamia College University: Ross-Keppel’s lost dream

With schools being bombed, parents are pulling their children out from them.

PESHAWAR: It was nearly a century ago when Ross-Keppel had co-founded Darul Uloom Islamia (now Islamia College University) in Peshawar. Ross-Keppel, the then top administrative official of the British Raj in the region, had a dream – a dream of educating the unruly Pathan tribesmen in what is now Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and tribal regions.

Ross-Keppel had co-founded Darul Uloom Islamia with Sir Sahibzada Abdul Qayyum Khan in 1913. “I shall try to get all the sons of the tribal maliks, the chief of the next generation, to attend the school and learn that the ‘Firangi’ and his administration are not as black as they are painted.” This is how he outlined his vision for the institution which has since become a great alma mater in the region.

But today it seems that Ross-Keppel’s vision is nothing more than a lost dream. Now obscurantist Taliban are out to erase whatever in their view is un-Islamic. Secular education, they believe, is making the youth heretics. And this is why they have been attacking state-run schools in the settled and tribal regions, whipping up fear among schoolchildren and their parents.

“My parents have stopped me from attending the school after our van was bombed earlier last month,” said Iqra, a student at Frobel Model School in Peshawar. “I don’t want to sit idle at home, I want to continue my studies,” she says.

Taliban insurgents detonated a bomb near the van on January 12, killing the school’s principal and vice-principal, along with seven other persons. Several students were also wounded. The school remained closed for four days after the attack.

Though the Frobel Model School has reopened now, the trauma and fear continue to haunt its students. “Women teachers have now stopped attending the school. I feel so sad,” Iqra said.

The students who sustained injuries in the attack have yet to return to the school. Those attending, have a lurking fear of being targeted. “My parents tell me to pray for my safety before leaving for the school,” said Husna, a sixth grade student.

The deaths and injuries of their teachers and peers in the bomb attack has been a huge blow for the innocent minds. They still remember vivid details of the unfortunate day.

“I wept profusely after I came to know about the death of my teacher,” said Ayesha, another student.

The school, where 160 students are currently studying, is about to close down.

“We had six women teachers. Two of them were killed, while one is hospitalized in an injured condition. Others have not attended the school since the blast,” Rashid Iqbal, the owner of the school, told The Express Tribune. He said that school attendance, which was very thin when the school reopened four days after the explosion, was slowly improving, despite lingering fears among the students.

“People in the village say that the school is facing threats because of its co-education policy,” Iqbal said. “I have considered closing the school, but have postponed it till the end of this session. I will definitely give it a good thought because there is nothing more precious than one’s life,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 7^th, 2011.