By TwoCircles.net News Desk ,
New Delhi: Maulana Badruddin Ajmal, Member of Lok Sabha from Dhubri (Assam) and president, Assam United Democratic Front, has urged the Congress-led UPA Government to think first for the 96% schoolgoing children of Muslim community who do not attend any madrasa (according to Sachar report only 4% of Muslim children study at madrasa). The MP has also suggested the government to first experiement the proposed Central Madrasa Board for government-aided madrasas running under government madrasa boards in some states.
In a letter to Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal, Ajmal said madrasas in India have been independent for last couple of centuries, and so any move by government to control and monitor them will not go down easily with the community and madrasa authorities.
Strengthening his point that the community will not accept the central government initiative, Ajmal wrote: It is notable that all leading non-governmental madrasas like – Darul Uloom Deoband and Nadwatul Ulama Lucknow, religious organizations like – Jamait Ulama-I Hind and All India Ulama Council and a majority of Muslim religious leaders have already rejected the proposed CMB before this fresh move by your esteemed ministry.
“The Muslim community leaders have rejected the proposal as they fear this will allow unnecessary government interference in the madrasa system. Moreover, we do have government aided madrasa boards in at least 10 states of our country where madrasas are affiliated and aided by the state governments. At present the conditions of these government aided madrasas – education, infrastructure and staff salary – are far worse than those non-aided madrasas. Especially the theological aspects of these govt.-aided madrasas are very apathetic. In addition to this I am frequent to face arguments during intra-community meetings such as ‘If the government is really concerned about the educational welfare of the Muslims, then it should give proportionate reservation to Muslim students in all central universities’. Some even put straight questions like “Why is the government not setting up schools, colleges, medical colleges and ITIs in the Muslim dominated areas if it is really open for the educational development of the Muslim in the country?” There can be counter arguments too but to me it is still not the time for a Central Madrasa Board for non-aided non-governmental (quami) madarasas in our country.”
In the letter he has put five suggestions before the government:
1)The HRD ministry should pay urgent attention towards the out of school Muslim children before everything else. I strongly believe that if the present UPA government can manage to bring the percentage of out of school Muslim children down from 7.67% to even 4 % in this five year tenure, it will be a delighted gift for both the community and the nation.
2)The ministry should first resolve to make the proposed CMB for government aided madrasas for a targeted time period, bring them under one umbrella as in Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and facilitate equally standard education for madrasas in all states to set an example against government aided madrasas’ negative reputation.
3)There are thousands of primary and pre-primary schools run by Muslims NGOs or local bodies of masjids across the country and most of them are following syllabus proscribed by the state governments in addition to maktab (elementary Islamic) education. These schools be adopted first by the state government under the SSA or by the central government under the UEE and then manage standard primary education through government aid. It will avail a solid educational foundation for all Muslim children and will make an opportune to the next general secondary standard madrasa students to pursue their advanced education either with government aided institutes or with non-government aided ones – madrasas. Generally they will prefer the former owing to the future prospects of their carrier.
4)According to Muslim NGOs only 1.5% Muslim children are completing madrasa education nationwide and ulama argue that this small number is even not enough to fulfill the religious need of the community alone. I think government should effectively plan for 98.5% Muslim children and rest will be automatically updated to match with the community demands.
5)The government should avoid direct involvement in the functioning of independent madrasas by all means until a successful and transparent experiment has been done with aided madrasa board. On the other hand an NGO- Government partnership project aiming at the targets set by the proposed CMB can be initiated without further delay. These partner NGOs will work as bridge between madrasas and government and will amicably be able to implement mutually accepted and desired changes or development in both curriculum and methodology of madrasa education system. Which will gradually be taken by the Central Madrasa Board and the NGOs will be replaced by the CMB members in later stage.