By Pervez Bari, TwoCircles.net
Bhopal: The Standing Committee of the National Monitoring Committee for Minorities’ Education, (NMCME), gave a patient hearing to the leadership of minority communities’ running educational institutions listening to their woes in uplifting the educational standards of their masses in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh states in the absence of adequate support from the Central and State Governments here on Thursday.
The NMCME also noted down their grievances and suggestions that came in between to ameliorate the educational backwardness of Muslims, Christians and other minority communities.
Educationists, social workers, people running educational institutions for minority communities, mostly Muslims and Christians, from different parts of Madhya Pradesh had assembled to participate in the inter-active session with NMCME to point out the impediments coming in their way to propagate literacy. Thus, thereby make their masses educationally sound so that they could improve their quality of life by taking up respectable jobs as per their qualifications. They also put forth their suggestions as how the governments should help them to overcome their woes.
Besides Madhya Pradesh, people from Chhattisgarh also visited Bhopal to participate in the open meeting.
Various issues discussed during the open meeting included grant to Madarsas, appointment of Urdu teachers on vacant posts, motivation to NGOs for promotion of educational activities for minority communities in rural areas, equal distribution of benefits and facilities among all minority communities, formulation of policies and facilities for educational upliftment of Christian community, opening of Navodaya Vidyalaya for minorities students in every district of the state, issuance of caste certificate, distribution of uniforms, textbooks free of costs to minority students studying in schools run by NGOs etc.
An overall perception that emerged after over three hours of inter-action session was that the government schemes and programmes are not publicised well in advance to reach the beneficiaries at the ground level especially in small towns and rural areas.
Dr. Arif Junaid Nadwi, a lecturer in District Institute of Education Training, (DIET), Bhopal, drew the Standing Committee’s attention towards the step-motherly treatment being meted out to Urdu, Arabic and Persian languages at the school and college levels by the successive Madhya Pradesh Governments over more than a decade. He submitted a nine-point memorandum with documents highlighting the injustices being done to these languages over the years.
Dr. Junaid said that in schools at the Primary and Middle level the Urdu teacher-student ration is glaringly low with the result desirous students are deprived of learning Urdu. He alleged that virtually no lecturer has been appointed for Urdu, Arabic and Persian languages for last 10 years at the High School and Higher Secondary level. The Primary and Middle Urdu teachers have been assigned the task of teaching the students of High School and Higher Secondary classes, thereby lowering the standard of education being imparted in these languages.
He said that there are 350 government schools in Madhya Pradesh where students are desirous for opting Urdu language but there are only 10 Urdu teachers. While the DIET set-up in each district of the state provides for two sanctioned posts of Urdu lecturers, one senior and one junior level, but in none of these DIET centres Urdu lecturers have been appointed, Dr. Junaid charged.
He pointed out that 74 posts of Urdu and 12 posts of Arabic lecturers were sanctioned in 1995 but none have been appointed against these. He alleged that some of these sanctioned posts have been given away to Sanskrit.
Mrs. Hafsa Arab, Professor of Arabic, submitted a memorandum seeking the Standing Committee’s intervention to stall the Madhya Pradesh Board of Secondary Education’s move to abolish classical languages Arabic and Persian from the curriculum from next academic session.
Sagheer Baidaar, secretary Muslim Education & Career Promotion Society, (MECAPS), appreciated the imaginative schemes and liberal approach of the Central government. However, he regretted that its poor implementation due to poor publicity nullifies its impact, as Muslims are unaware of the schemes.
Baidaar also submitted a memorandum highlighting the neglect of Urdu by the Central Board of Secondary Education, (CBSE) affiliated schools in Madhya Pradesh as it is being systematically decimated by vested interests to send it to oblivion. The memorandum urged the Standing Committee for issuance of directives from the CBSE to schools in Madhya Pradesh affiliated to it to introduce Urdu as a Second Language in Std. IX immediately from this academic session. The memorandum pointed out that the CBSE Scheme of Studies provides for Urdu subject to be opted as a Second Language in Std. IX from one of the 30 languages listed in the Secondary School Curriculum along with English or Hindi.
Mrs. Kaiser Zaman, secretary Kurwai Education Society, also complained that information of various programmes of the government do not reach at the grass-root level. This makes the difference between the haves and have-nots. She suggested that publicity of government schemes should be done from the Panchayat level.
Dr. Akhlaq Asar, a retired professor of Urdu, suggested that teachers for English, Hindi, Urdu, Marathi & Gujarati should be appointed in all Central Schools and Navodaya Vidyalayas as is being done by the Regional Institute of Education, Bhopal (affiliated to NCERT) so that students can study any language as per their choice. The practice of schools deciding which language is to be offered should be stopped forthwith and the right to choose the language of their choice should rest with the students.
Mohammad Ibrahim Qureshi, former chairman of Madhya Pradesh Minorities Commission, drew the Standing Committee’s attention to media reports wherein it was said that National Minorities Education Commission in its report to Human Resources Development Ministry has recommended that education in madarsas should be imparted to children of all religions.
This, Qureshi said, is not practical at all. It has sent a message among the Muslim masses that the government in the guise of financial aid or grant wants to change the set-up of Madarsas. This if implemented without the of madarsa management’s concurrence would be violative of Articles 25 to 30(1) of the Indian Constitution, he pointed out.
Qureshi, who is also president Madhya Pradesh Muslim Education Society which is affiliated to All India Muslim Education Society, asked the Standing Committee to recommend to the Madhya Pradesh Government to restore cent per cent grants to big Muslim institutions as given in the past as they are on the verge of closure.
He demanded the implementation of the recommendations of Digvijay Singh Committee and Aziz Qureshi Committee reports. It may be mentioned here that Arjun Singh formed these committees to uplift the lot of Muslims educationally in the state in 1983 and 1988 when he was the Chief Minister of the state. He also submitted a 16-point charter of demands and suggestions to the Standing Committee.
Qazi Arif Farooqui alias Babu Bhai Qazi, president of Alpsankhyak School, Madarsa Welfare Association from Ratlam, charged that 4000 posts of Urdu teachers are lying vacant for last three years but the Bharatiya Janata Party, (BJP), ruled Madhya Pradesh Government is not interested to make appointments. As a result of lack of teachers the trend in Muslim students of offering Urdu language is waning.
Similarly, the standing orders of the Central Government and that of previous Congress government in the state of compulsorily appointing an Urdu teacher where there are at least 10 students in a school or where there is a population of 250 Muslims in any village or pocket is not being implemented. Despite repeated requests to the concerned authorities, the plea is falling on deaf ears, he added.
Babu Bhai also alleged that caste certificates are not being issued to Muslims belonging to Backward Classes categories by the authorities despite many complaints.
Dr. Zafar Hasan complained of bias against Unani system of medicine. He said that out of 200 posts of doctors approved by the Central Government only 20 were allotted to the Unani system. He urged the Standing Committee to convey to the Union Health Ministry the malpractices being adopted by the BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh Government in favouring Homeopathy and Ayurvedic system of medicines.
Fr. Frank Abraham from Durg complained that BJP-ruled Chhattisgarh Government was not honouring the minority status granted by the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions to the engineering college being run by Christians.
Younus, a resident of nearby Vidisha town, caused a flutter in the meeting when he complained that seven bogus Madarsas are being given financial aid in Vidisha town for the last three years by the Madhya Pradesh Madarsa Board since the BJP Government came to power. Despite clinching evidence about non-existence of these seven Madarsas the Madarsa Board officials did not blacklist these and put the whole issue on the back-burner. While a genuine lady running a Madarsa has not been granted affiliation by the Madarsa Board, he claimed
He said that he has filed a case in this regard in the State High Court at his own expense and resolved to fight it to finish.
Meanwhile, Dr. Mani Jacob, a member of the Standing Committee, during the inter-action session exhorted the participants not to depend on governments for everything under the sun but try to mobilise their own resources to solve their problems. However, he admitted that the Minority Cell formed in every department of Government of India has yet to make its presence felt. He pointed out that in UGC office there is no officer and no funds have also been allocated for the Minority Cell and it is the same story in many other departments where these cells are not functioning properly.
After the inter-active session Sunil Kumar, Joint Secretary, Higher Education, Govt. of India, and member-secretary of the committee, admitted that non-awareness of the government schemes is depriving beneficiaries from availing their due benefits. He assured to endeavour and rectify this lapse.
Kumar regarding Madarsa education modernization programme clarified that the government is not deciding the syllabus while Area Intensive Programme was wholly voluntary.
At the outset Zafar Ali Naqvi, chairman Standing Committee NMCME, throwing light on the objectives of NMCME said the inferior status to which minorities are confined has become a matter of concern all over India. As a result, there is considerable interest on strategies to enhance their status and efforts are on to promote minorities’ enrolment at all levels. The Government of India has been making special provisions for minorities’ education in many ways.
Naqvi said a meeting of the Standing Committee of NMCME was held on November 17, 2005 when it submitted its annual report wherein several recommendations were made.
In the concluding remarks of the report, Naqvi said, the overall impression which the Standing Committee had obtained after an year of activity is that the general polices and programmes framed by the various Commission/ Committee reports, and Programme of Action 1992 for Minorities’ Education have met with only inadequate and incomplete implementation at the Central and State levels.
He said the report pointed out that even though funds have been made available for various schemes, they have not reached the ultimate beneficiaries owing to the insufficient mechanism/channels, delay in implementation, lack of coordination between the Central and State agencies and also reported cases of misuse/malpractices at the ground level. Ways and means have to be found to overcome these difficulties.
Naqvi informed that to study and understand the difficulties being faced by the minorities in the field of education all over India, till date the Standing Committee has so far visited the states of Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Meghalaya and Union Territories of Pondicherry, Lakshadweep and Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
Meanwhile, the Standing Committee apart from Zafar Ali Naqvi as Chairman has Prof. Prithipal Singh Kapoor, Dr. Ishaq Jamkhanwala, Maulana Anzar Shah, Maulana Mohd. Wali Rehmani, Hisamul Islam Siddiqui, Dr. Mani Jacob, K.K. Abubaker, Prof. Ms Sabra Habib and Haleem Khan as members of the panel. The Joint Secretary, Higher Education, Govt. of India, Sunil Kumar is the member-secretary of the committee.
Hisamul Islam Siddiqui, a member of the Standing Committee who is editor of weekly Jadeed Markaz from Lucknow, conducted the meeting.
The Commissioner, Minorities and Backward Classes Welfare, Jaideep Govind, Additional Secretary, Jabbar Dhankawala, Secretary, M.P. Backward Classes Commission, Rajendra Mishra and senior officers of Minorities and Backward Classes Welfare Department, School Education Department and Higher Education Department were also present on the occasion.
Meanwhile, the Standing Committee led by Zafar Naqvi had a meeting with the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in the evening. In the meeting Naqvi put forward the problems of minorities education pertaining to the state and sought their redressal.
Chouhan reportedly assured the Committee that Urdu teachers would be appointed shortly where Urdu is taught, apart from other steps to promote education among minorities. Earlier, the committee members called on Minister for Minorities Welfare Rustam Singh.
The Standing Committee members also visited the Regional Office of Maulana Azad National Urdu University, (MANUU), here.
Regional Director MANUU Dr. Mohammad Ahsan welcomed the members and briefed them about the activities of the office under his charge. He said that in Madhya Pradesh via tele-education system MANUU is offering graduate and post-graduate courses through Urdu medium. He informed that a regular B.Ed. course through Urdu medium has been started by MANUU from this year in Bhopal on very meager fees of Rs. 2500 only. Assistant Director Sadat Khan was also present on the occasion. ([email protected])