Shahabuddin's Letter to HRD Minister, 16 Nov., 99

According to press reports, your Ministry is setting up a Committee to suggest ways to modernize Madarsa education in the country.

As you are aware, a Central Scheme for this purpose is already in operation for several years and has made little impact simply because most Madarsas would not like to increase area of dependence on the Government or to add the school syllabus to the existing Madarsa syllabus.

However, the Muslim community has progressively reforming the Madarsa system since the beginning of the Century. Many Madarsas without official support, teach English, the principal language of the State and elements of arithmetic, history, geography and even sciences. But the Madarsa education has a basic purpose to produce not only religious functionaries but experts in the Quran, the Traditions and the Shariah. If Madarsas burden themselves with double courses in the quest of clerical jobs, they lose their raison de'tre. However, it is possible to re-organise Madarsa education in a manner that at various terminal point, a student may switch to general educational stream and vice versa.

I wonder why the Government, instead of laying emphasis on providing general educational facilities for the Muslim community, which is educationally deprived,  in every Muslim Mohalla and tota, is anxious about modernising Madarsa education. The Government does not even collect statistics about the % of Muslim children who never see the face of a school or Madarsa and of those who go to a Madarsa or to a school. I think the Government should begin with a National Educational Survey of the Muslim Community to find out what needs to be done, when and at what level.

I suggest that after the Survey is done, the Central Government should finance opening of primary schools according to national norms in every Muslim Mohalla and tola .; Secondly, secularise the school syllabus and culture so as to dispel the apprehension of the Muslim  community that the Government school system is meant to Hinduise them; Thirdly, also ensure that the Mother Tongue is the medium of instruction, where are it is different from the principal language of the State, and give Mother Tongue the position of First Language in the Three-Language Formula. Finally, the Government should provide financial and material incentives for all poor parents to send their children to schools. If the Government is really serious about uplifting the Muslims educationally and economically, emphasis on general education and not Madarsa education is the key.