By Mohd. Faisal Fareed, TwoCircles.net,
Lucknow: There shall be no need for reservation for the Muslim community if they attain proper and higher education in life. Once educated they need no reliance on the policy of reservation. These views were expressed by Chairman of National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (NCMEI), Justice MSA Siddique in the annual conference of Minority Association of Educational Institutions at Scientific Convention Centre here on Wednesday.
“Muslims should not rely on the crutches of reservation as by 2020 it will be an era of multinational companies in the country thus eliminating the reservation system. In the present, the government jobs are shrinking day by day so, Muslims should try to acquire higher and professional education for getting good positions in those multi-national companies,” he said.
Adding to it, he said: “Muslims should not call themselves as minority but they should emerge in such a way that they should be called as second majority in the country.”
He informed that there is a misconception with the people that if a Muslim opens an institution then it would become a minority institution but it’s not like that. For getting the status of minority institution they need to have three things – Founder should be of Muslim Community, Institution Administration should be managed by Muslims and the beneficiaries should be mainly of Muslim community. “They can also take aid from the government but then they will have to admit small numbers of the students of the other communities. Even though government cannot interfere in any of the matters of the institution which includes fees, admissions and recruitment of teaching and non-teaching staff. Taking aid from the government doesn’t affect their minority status,” he added.
He also said that if any person of the Muslim community wants to open a professional education institution then they will have to take NOC from the education officer. In case if the officer fails to respond within 90 days of the submission of the application then it would be considered that NOC has been given but if the officer rejects the application then the matter would be taken up by NCMEI. “If the commission finds that any officer has deliberately rejected the applicant then on their recommendation departmental action will be taken within the period of one month,” he added.
“One of the reasons for the backwardness of the Muslim community is that they have been excluded from the mainstream. The only solution is getting back into the mainstream. For this Muslims will have to go hand in hand with the people of the other community,” he said. He added that for getting more and more benefits and for the development of the country there is an urgent need of brotherhood with the people of the other community.
Meanwhile, Chairperson, Girls Education Committee, Dr. Shabista Ghaffar said: “Participation of the Muslims in the higher education has gone relatively low due to several reasons which include Poverty, illiterate parents, etc. so, the students of the Muslim community should come forward to attain higher education for their better future.” She added that despite the fact that there is lesser number of the minority institutions people should focus on strengthening them so that large number of the Muslim students could get proper and quality education.
She informed that as per the reports, southern part of the country is getting ahead in the field of education in comparison to northern part of the country. The reason for the growth of the south in the field of education is that they have three key things necessary for it which include Proper planning, good strategy and effective implementation.
“We will have to take education as a movement which is only possible if all the institution will come under one umbrella,” she added.
President of Minority Association of Educational Institutions, Liyaqat Ali demanded that in the state Muslims should get a reservation of 10 percent in government services and also all the minority educational institutions from primary to degree and recognised madarsas all should be made aided.