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NEWS 17
NOV 15 - NOV 28 2017
Website: www.asianlite.ae Email: newsdesk@asianlite.ae
The Brain Behind Budget Schools He is the man behind Budget Schooling in the UAE. Thousands of students in Ajman and Umm Al Quin are gaining quality education at affordable fees at Habitat Schools. All credit goes to Mr Shamsu Zaman, the Managing Director. The story of Mr Zaman is an inspiring one. From a bookshop salesman to the MD of a reputable school chain. He faced many hardships to reach the current position. Besides money, the young Zaman was pained with missing the greenery of his village. The nostalgic memories of his village Chennamangalore and its river Iruvazhinji prompt Mr Zaman to launch a new concept of schooling in the UAE. Asian Lite’s Kaliph Anaz meets Mr Shamsu Zaman at his Habitat in Ajman. Kaliph Anaz: How did you get this name Habitat for a school campus? Mr Zaman: We derived that name from our Social Space concept for creating bright minds. For us education is not a process to gain qualifications but helping the new generation to face the challenges of life besides making them a good human being. What is the use of education if you are socially committed to look after the elders and under privileged in the community? Our campuses are designed to help the children to learn at natural habitat. In every classroom, you can see some greenery. The open corridors and courtyard are helping the students to feel the nature. Through Habitat, we are providing a home of learning where nature, society and culture co-exist beautifully. It was my dream to have a campus surrounded by trees. So the students can move around them. A natural habitat for a better learning. The motto of the school is learn something from everything. We are grateful to our chairman His Highness Sulthan Bin Saqer Al Nuaimi for supporting us in the venture. We got two Habitat campuses in Ajman, one in Umm Al Quin and International Indian School in Ajman.
Kaliph Anaz: Could you explain more about the Social Space concept? Mr Zaman: The children of the expatriate community are spending most of the time within four walls. I want them to experience openness during their time in the school. We broke the walls to provide openness. Our school is based on the idea of negotiating teaching, learning and parenting from the specific givens of the expatriate community in the UAE. Our schools were designed to be affordable for the Middle Class and Lower Middle Class segments in the society. We are providing quality education at affordable prices. We got all the facilities for a modern school – including a mini Olympic swimming pool. But the fees are far below when comparing to the city schools.
Kaliph Anaz: Habitat School was in news recently for farming. Why farming? We are the first school in the UAE to create farm land for the children to learn. Even though I am the second son of a teacher, my family background is farming. My 70-yearold father is still busy with his daily routine of ploughing and taking care of plants and vegetables. I like farming. It teaches us the value of work and the love of nature. We are blessed to get such an array of fruits and vegetables from Mother Earth. If you are aware about that simple fact, you won’t hurt her with pollution. We are the first school in the UAE to farming teachers. Atleast one period every week from Grade 4 onwards will go for farming. We won many prizes for farming in the UAE. We got 800 kg vegetables in the first year of farming. Last year we got almost 2000 kg. We also got a green house. Kaliph Anaz: How the school adopting to the trends in science and technology? Besides Social Space, we created Cyber Square for the students to experiment with their knowledge on digital technology. We are also helping the m to open a personal emails and the advantages of the internet to gain knowledge. They will get exposure to both hardware and software. Kaliph Anaz: You started your career in the UAE as a salesman in a bookshop. What
prompted you to align with education? Mr Zaman: It is fate. I bought International Indian School, Ajman in 2009 when the previous owners were ready o sell it. The school was running in a villa at that time but 1200 students were studying in it. When the school needed expansion, I approached His Highness Sheikh Sultan Bin Saquer Al Nuaimi for support. With his support we built new buildings and the student strength gone up to 4000 with 2 years. That prompted us to open new school campuses in the Habitat Model. Kaliph Anaz: Tell us more about your upbringing. Mr Zaman: My father was an Arabic teacher at local school in our village. We were seven children – six boys and a girl. My father struggled a lot to educate and feed. He was forced to take leave from the school to go to Qatar for better opportunities. Kaliph Anaz: As a teacher’s son, you know the value of education. What’s it mean to you? Mr Zaman: Education should instill values. If my children look at a beggar on the street with compassion, I am blessed. So the humanitarian values should be imparted through education. It should give a good character to a human being. The youngsters should be close to their family, their values and the needy. I always say that if everyone takes care of their needy neighbours, there won’t be any problem in this world. Kaliph Anaz: Which are the other projects you are involved in? Mr Zaman: Recently we launched Mother’s Corner. We have given the space for mothers of the students to do farming. So many of them are coming to school during their spare time to do farming. We are also involved in voluntary services back in Kerala. Kaliph Anaz: Some details about family and parents? Mr Zaman: My father is Abdul Jabbar Chettiyan Thodi. We are from Chennamangalore. My mother’s name is Maryam. My role model is my uncle CT Abdul Rahim. He is running an orphanage at Dayapuram. It is the first orphanage in our region with an English medium school and open to all communities. He used to write in newspapers and also written many books. He taught me to help people, but don’t expect anything in return. He said: If you are expecting anything in return, you are not helping them at all. Kaliph Anaz: What is the proudest moment in your life? One of the proudest moments is when a Pakistani father approached me to get an admission into our Indian school for his children. He had seen his friend’s children studying in our school behaving properly. Comparing to other schools, we maintain a strict discipline and our students cannot be seen misbehaving.