More avenues needed for madarsa students
Education is the only way by which the uplift of any community can be ensured as only an educated society can bring about economic transformation and also support the growth of the country. Islam also teaches its followers to educate themselves and gain knowledge, yet the illiteracy rate among Muslims (42.72%) is very high.
The Sachar Committee says that around one-fourth of Muslim students in 6-14 age group have either never attended any school or are dropouts whereas only 50% of the Muslim students make it to secondary education. Most of them who educate their children, like other communities, prefer private schools for their children as they think these schools provide better education system and more career opportunities.
Thus the percentage of madarsa-going children automatically reduces. Most of madarsa students are from underprivileged families or are orphans. These children entirely depend on madarsa system for their well being.
There are more than 1600 madarsas in Uttar Pradesh alone those are either partially funded by government or are run privately. Basically the word madarsa means an educational institution, be it a school, college or a university. A madarsa may not necessarily be a religious school. The regular courses of madarsas include Tafseer (interpretation of Qur’an), Shariah (Islamic law), Hadith (teachings based on the sayings and deeds of Prophet Mohammad), Mantiq (Logic) and History of Islam. However, it’s never compulsory to have a religious institution known as madarsa; In fact, a madarsa can be a secular educational institution, having modern curriculum too. Currently, however, the word madarsa has been associated with a typical kind of religious school providing Islamic studies to the Muslim students only. Nevertheless, it is neither compulsory for any madarsa to have Muslim students only nor focus on religious teachings. A madarsa can incorporate other relevant curriculums too along with the religious teachings. In UP only, there are several madarsas having NCERT curriculum and focusing on the overall development of students.
The modernization of madarsa scheme is a commendable step of the government which seems to have yielded positive results. However, the basic issues faced by madarsas are not only related to curriculum or dress code. The real problem is of finances, cleanliness and facilities. There are many madarsas that depend on the charity or donation which obviously is not sufficient to look after those parent-less children and provide them proper educational facilities.
The ones, which are government aided, too have to manage a number of expenses on their own thereby affecting the quality of education and standard of facilities. A great many of them don’t have proper sanitation system, mostly those for the girls. There, the girls have to suffer due to unclean and unhygienic conditions of toilets. Sometimes there is no proper arrangement of potable water too. Although the government has come up with various schemes for such madarsas, the number of beneficiaries is still very low. The first concern should be to provide the students healthy surroundings.
At present, many madarsas have incorporated modern education system and have introduced subjects like Mathematics, Science, Computers and English. Their concept is to provide new opportunities to students and make them competent enough in technical fields too. But the percentage of Madarsa students opting for technical studies or civil services is quite low.
The basic reason for it is the less value attached to madarsa education in the present society as well as fewer opportunities of admission in higher classes. In our country, not all the universities admit madarsa passouts. Thus the students are left with limited options and sometimes no options at all.
To avoid such terrible situations, there should be more openings in the universities as well as in the job sectors too for the madarsa passouts.
The Madarsa Board needs to be given proper attention and similar position as other educational boards so that new vistas of education and jobs come up for students.
These madarsa students should be assimilated with the mainstream education system and be given equal opportunities. Only by changing the dress code, no modernisation can be brought about. The dress hardly matters, the basic need is to equip the madarsas with all modern education values thereby instilling contemporary ideas and endowing the students with new hopes of success.