This Sunday, the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions, which comes under the Human Resource Development Ministry, prepares to host several Muslim clerics and scholars in Delhi to discuss the way forward on constituting a Central madrasa board to oversee 'modernization' of madrasas across the country. Grants, schemes and aid will possibly be on the cards. At present, only some states like West Bengal have a madrasa board which tries to ensure a certain degree of uniformity and introduction of modern elements in madrasa curriculum.

But data collected by the Sachar Committee  tasked by the Prime Minister to find out the status of Muslims, the panel's report was tabled in the Lok Sabha today  rejects the theory that madrasas need to be reformed and aided by the state if the educational status of Muslims has to improve. Because the Sachar Committee data shows that only 3 to 4 per cent of school-going Muslim children go to madrasas. Dispelling the impression that Muslims flock to madrasas in large numbers, the Committee report concludes that "Muslim parents are not averse to mainstream education or to send their children to affordable government schools."

The report also differentiates between the madrasa and the maktab. The madrasa is an established religious school, sometimes residential, and the maktab is the neighbouring school, attached to a masjid which supplements 'mainstream' school children with some religious instruction. Citing the example of Kerala (which has a sizeable Muslim population) "where 60,000 children are enrolled in madrasas and maktabs", the report notes that maktabs are seen as necessary by those Muslim families who see 'mainstream' schools as providing inadequate knowledge of Urdu, or the Persian script, necessary to read the Koran. Hence, the need to supplement with a stint at the local maktab. The report explicitly asks policy makers to be careful and distinguish between maktabs and madrasas. The Sachar report, however, says that the government should provide "equivalence" to certain madrasa courses with Class XII and then graduation so that madrasa-educated children and young adults can compete for jobs with children from 'mainstream schools'.

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