Panel nod to madrasa plan

BY PARUL CHANDRA

NEW DELHI

July 11: With polls appearing not too far away in the horizon, the UPA government clearly has little time to waste on schemes that it’s working on, particularly those that will help it tap the vote-bank. Among the slew of schemes that the Union ministry of human resource development is currently working on, the one to help madarsas modernise, has recently got the nod of the Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC). The scheme will be a revamped version of the existing Area Intensive and Madarsa Modernisation Programme.

The ministry has proposed an expenditure of Rs 625 crores for the scheme for 2008-09 which has a total outlay of around Rs 700 crores in the Eleventh Plan (2007-12). The fully Centrally-funded scheme is to be implemented through the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS). "Children studying in madarsas will be able to access modern education through the distance education mode in addition to their traditional curriculum," said a ministry official. Madarsas will be recognised as NIOS study centres provided they fulfil the eligibility criteria.

Apart from chipping in with money to pay the salaries of madarsa teachers who are normally poorly paid, the scheme is also expected to provide for the teaching of "modern" subjects like maths and science. The HRD ministry is hopeful that the scheme will be able to reach out to between 10,000 to 15,000 madarsas and benefit about 10 lakh students studying in them pursue mainstream education.

This scheme to modernise the madarsas isn’t the only one with which the UPA government will be hoping to woo the minorities. The HRD ministry is learnt to be preparing yet another scheme, though on a smaller scale, for all minorities. the Rs 125 crores scheme envisages providing minority schools in the country with financial assistance for improving their infrastructure. This scheme, given its smaller allocation, will not have to go to the Union Cabinet for approval. The approval of the standing finance committee of the HRD ministry will suffice.

The madarsa modernisation programme which has been on the anvil for quite some time will aim to help madarsas improve their infrastructure. Most important, the scheme will be entirely voluntarily in nature with madarsas free to opt for it. The government has chosen to keep it thus given the opposition it had faced to an earlier proposal to have a Central Madarsa Board.

Introducing the scheme will help the government fulfil one of the objectives in the Prime Minister’s new 15-point programme for the welfare of minorities — the one promising modernisation of madrasa education by strengthening the existing scheme for madrasa modernisation. Incidentally, the Sachar report which had detailed the poor educational condition of the country’s Muslims among other things had noted that madrasas need to "provide good quality, subsidised `mainstream’ education..."