Close on heels of making it mandatory for online registration of Madrasas on the departmental portal and celebration of Independence Day there, the Yogi Adityanath Government is in the process of introducing books by National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) in the Islamic seminaries.
The aim of introducing NCERT books is to standardise and improve the curriculum and sync with job requirements. The NCERT books on Science, Maths and English are proposed to be included in the syllabi of Madrasas from the next academic session. State Madarsa Board has started the groundwork in this direction.
Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma tweeted on Monday referring to the ultimate aim of enabling Madarsa students to compete with students of mainstream educational institutions. Earlier, UP Minorities Welfare minister Chaudhary laxmi Narayan had claimed that modernisation of Madrasas would spur better technical education and job prospects for the students. Presently, there are about 19,000 recognised and 560 aided Madrasas operating in the State.
“We are in the process of standardising and integrating the syllabus, especially for subjects like Science, Mathematics and English and plan to introduce NCERT books,” Registrar of UP Madrasa Shiksha Parishad Rahul Gupta said in lucknow on Monday.
So far, students after completing their education from a Madrasa used to become ‘Alims’ or ‘Maulvis’ which are low paying jobs. Most Madrasas primarily impart religious teachings with some big ones introducing modern subjects in the last few years.
The Registrar said that the plan was in a formative stage and officials were working on how to go about it. The Board will not touch upon religious teachings (Deen-e-Taaleem) which is a common practice in madrasas. Only the formal education part will be revised soon.
Gupta said that in the religious part only bifurcation of books will be done like what would be taught in classes starting from 1 to 5.
Earlier in August, the UP Government had also launched a dedicated portal for making online registration mandatory for madrasas and upload complete details of their teachers, staff and students to weed out fake students, teachers and prevent irregularities and ensure more transparency in their functioning.
The portal would also check duplication of scholarships and pre-empt availing of government schemes by non-bona fide students, so that only the genuine pupils benefited. Soon after taking over, the Yogi government rolled out its agenda of Madarsa modernisation even as a section of Muslims criticised the move claiming it as an infringement on their autonomy.
In the State’s 2017-18 Budget, the Yogi government allocated about Rs 1,700 crore towards Minorities’ Welfare department, of this, Rs 394 crore were allocated towards imparting modern education in recognised Madarsas.
The budget has also made provision of Rs 792 crore for scholarships to minority students, Rs 150 crore for fees reimbursement of minority students, Rs 18 crore for setting up of women’s hostel in minority dominated areas, and Rs 341 crore towards ‘Multi-sectoral District Development Plan’.
