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New Delhi: In an attempt to
implement the much delayed Central board for Madarsa education,
Union Human Resource (HRD) Ministry is meeting the Member of
Parliaments (MPs) today on October 3, 2009.
The Ministry has already completed few rounds of talks with Muslim
community leaders in various state headquarters on the subject.
Apart from
consulting MPs
from the Muslim community, today's meeting will also have other MPs
from the areas dominated by Muslims, says the Ministry sources.
Stating that with
the ambitious Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education
Bill 2009 going through the Parliament, sources say, HRD
minister Kapil Sibal is now pushing through the Madarsa board
proposal. The proposal has been delayed by over three years.
According to the
Ministry sources, a Central board for madarsa education would help ensure minimum
education standards in the teaching of non-religious subjects in
these seminaries. The proposal has been opposed by the community
leadership amid fears that it could increase government interference
in madarsas. However, official sources clarified that the
affiliation of madarsas to the proposed board will be voluntary.
With the help of
MPs and community leaders, the government hopes to break the
deadlock on the controversial subject which has been delayed for
over three years.
The National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language (NCPUL), an
autonomous organization under the Ministry of Human Resource
Development engaged in the promotion of Urdu had stated in the
editorial of July 2003 issue of ‘Urdu Duniya’ that there are
5,00,000 madrasas in India.
Creation of a
Central board for madarsa education is one of the ambitious
proposals of the UPA government. However the Government is not able
to bring unanimity over the proposal.
“The
proposed Madrasa Board is not acceptable to us. It is better if the
government constitutes a committee comprising of Madrasa heads and
Ulema to look into the details of what actually it wants before
enforcing any decision on us”, Maulana Ghulam Mohd Vastanvi who
heads a chain of Madrasas and colleges across the country said about
the proposal.
Stating
that there is a wide gap between the two drafts of the Madrasa
board, one proposed by the Centre and other by the State, Maulana
Mehmood Dariyabadi said, “Similar questions were raised in a meeting
that was called in 2008 but the Government has not come up with any
explanation till now.”
“If the
Government’s intention is to include the modern education in the
Madrasas then we have already decided to do so. But the proposed
Madrasa board is vague that makes the intentions of the government
unclear”, said Mufti Huzaifah.
At the same time, there are few others
who back the government's proposal to Madrasa modernisation. "If the
government would not interfere with the syllabus and academics of
the Madrasa we don't have any problem", said Arshad Mukhtar,
secretary of Mohammadia Education Society that runs a chain of
Madrasa acroos India. Mohammadia Education Society is in fact the
one that took the initiative in 1978 to include modern education
along with the Islamic curriculum.
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