Lucknow: Following the Uttar Pradesh government’s decision to initiate a probe into the availability of basic facilities and competent teachers at state-funded madrasas, UP Madrasa Education Board Chairman Iftikhar Ahmad Javed called for the exercise to be postponed, saying examination preparations are going on in the madrasas.
In a letter written to Minority Welfare Minister Dharmpal Singh, Javed said examination work should be prioritised to safeguard the students’ future.
“As examination preparations are going on, I request you to postpone the probe and priority should be given to examination work so that the future of students remains secure,” Javed said in his letter.
“The madrasa board intends that the annual examinations in the madrasas of the state should be conducted on time like other education boards,” he said.
Javed said the probe in madrasas, however, is creating confusion and problems with conducting examinations.
Delay in examination work could cause a delay in examinations, especially when Lok Sabha elections are to be held next year, he said.
The Director of the Minority Welfare Department, J Reebha, in a letter sent on December 1, directed all divisional deputy directors and all district minority welfare officers to ensure the availability of fundamental facilities and competent teachers in madrasas to ensure quality education for students enrolled in them.
The letter emphasised the need to develop “exploratory, interesting, and scientific perspectives” in students and to “integrate them into the mainstream”.
To ensure this, the letter said, there should be a probe into madrasa buildings, basic facilities available there and also the educational records of teaching and non-teaching staff of state-aided madrasas.
The letter instructed that a report on it be submitted to the Registrar of the Madrasa Education Board by completing the probe by December 30.
At present, approximately 25,000 recognised and unrecognised madrasas are operational in Uttar Pradesh, out of which 560 receive grants from the state government.
For conducting the probe, a committee has been formed consisting of the District Minority Welfare Officer and the District Magistrate.
Additionally, in districts that have more than 20 madrasas receiving state government grants, an additional committee will be formed for speedy completion of this task.
The state government conducted a comprehensive check of all recognised and unrecognised madrasas in the state in September last year, in which approximately 8,000 madrasas were found to be unrecognised.
In 2017, a probe was also conducted when all the madrasas of the state were asked to upload the details of teachers and other things on the madrasa board’s portal.
