The debate of Deen and Duniya in Muslim dominated modern society is a never ending one. While for many, the two are apart, a majority try to seek parallelism between the two. Kashmir is no immune to such issues.
The debate takes next level when it comes to the kind of education. People have contrasting views over what kind of schooling children should be subjected to. The formal, western style of schooling dubbed as worldly education is often seen as compulsion for the survival in this world and imparting the religious education as obligatory. There are people who accuse the modern western style of education of reducing the society as morally regressive.
The conventional schools have a well defined role. The quest for moral and religious education mostly remains unaddressed for majority of the population given the limited approach of the religious seminaries towards both strands of education. Moreover, there is lot of negativity that surrounds the seminary phenomenon.
To cater to these issues, people have come up with the innovative models of schooling where in both strands wind together to yield the ideal results. Many schools have come up across Kashmir which has adopted such models. One among them is RP School – a chain of schools primarily based in Srinagar. Kashmir Life’s photojournalist Bilal Bahadur spends at day at the school to capture different shades and moods inside the campus.
The School is headquartered in Malbagh locality of Srinagar.
The school lays a massive focus on religious and moral education but that does not mean the conventional education is overlooked. The school is known for its exceptional results in board exams which make it a preferable choice for religious oriented parents to send their kids to. The emphasis on the worldly education is acknowledged even by its critics.
The holy Quran and Arabic language are part of the curriculum. All classes have a special session in which students recite the holy Quran.
Wearing a skull cap for male students is part of the uniform but not obligatory, but still majority of students prefer to wear it.
There is a pond in the middle of the school building; the students perform abolition daily for Namaz.
