LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath, on Friday pressed for initiating ‘reforms’ in the Madrasa education system and bringing them at par with the modern education standards to ensure that the students are not left out and remain abreast with the latest ‘upgradations’ in curriculum.
The Chief Minister, chairing a high-level meeting to review the madrasa model of education, underlined the need for bringing madrasa students into the mainstream while expressing concern over its ‘laggardness’.
“We will have to ensure that the madrasas don’t end up merely as religious education centres, ” the CM told the officials.
He said that it was necessary to improve the framework of madrasa education by bringing in quality education and also making it employment-oriented.
He said that it was essential to bring the madrasas into the mainstream and also ensure that every section of the community gets a level-playing field and benefits from it.
The Chief Minister also spoke about the challenges arising from a recent Supreme Court ruling which declared the higher education degrees (Kamil and Faazil) of Uttar Pradesh Madrasa Board as unconstitutional.
He further stressed on the need to align the curriculum of madrasas along with the New Education Policy (NEP 2020) and also enhance their functioning and management.
Instructing the officials on screening and selection of madrasa teachers, CM Yogi said, “There is a need to make the selection process of new teachers transparent and non-partisan, review the existing selection process and also upgrade the qualification criteria of teachers as well as non-teaching staff.”
He further suggested setting up a high-level committee which in turn could make recommendations, pertaining to madrasa teachers and students.
“A committee should be formed under the chairmanship of Minority Welfare Director, in which Special Secretaries of Basic Education, Secondary Education, Finance, Justice and Minority Welfare departments should be members. This committee will ensure smooth functioning of madrasas, suggest measures for service as well as security of teachers and bright future of students, ” he suggested.
The Chief Minister was earlier briefed by the Minority Department officials about the current plight of the state’s madrasas and the challenges before them.
Presently, there are a total of 13, 329 recognised madrasas operating in the state, in which 12, 35, 400 students are enrolled.
Of more than 12, 000 madrasas, 9, 979 are of primary and upper primary level (class 1 to 8) and 3, 350 are of secondary and higher secondary level (class 9 to 12). Out of these, 561 madrasas are funded by the state government, in which a total of 2, 31, 806 students are enrolled. The total number of teachers and non-teaching staff working in government-aided madrasas is 9, 889 and 8, 367 respectively.