Let There be Qurans and Computers for Madrassas

Vinod Tawade is wrong. Some madrassas across India do provide modern secular education, asserts Shahid Siddiqui.

In Maharashtra, there are 1,889 madrassas of which 550 teach modern subjects (Photo: Reuters)

There are good madrassas and there are bad madrassas as there are good and bad schools. To make sweeping statements about madrassas is as meaningless as saying that, “all government schools are bad.” Madrassa in Arabic means a place of learning and traditionally many great Muslim thinkers, philosophers, scientists, scholars emerged from these madrassas. Convent schools were also Christian seminaries or madrassas but with emphasis on secular education they have gradually emerged as centres for quality secular education.

The recent controversy regarding madrassa education in Maharashtra seems to be more political than a genuine concern for imparting modern secular education to Muslim children. In Maharashtra, there are 1,889 madrassas of which 550 are already teaching modern subjects and their students are appearing for open school examinations.

Nearly half of the madrassas are merely on paper with hardly any students on their rolls. Most of them are prepared to teach modern subjects provided they have the resources. In fact, the general trend among madrassas across India is to go for computer and science education. All major madrassas in the country, from Dar-ul-uloom Deoband to Nadwatul Uloom in Lucknow to Amarat-e-Shariah in Patna to a majority of madrassas in Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Karnataka have adopted modern technology and are encouraging their students to appear for school and university certification.

Consultation is the Key

If Maharashtra education minister Vinod Tawade genuinely wants to bring madrassa students into the educational mainstream he should consult the management of important Islamic seminaries and persuade them to adopt modern education, instead of issuing a dictat and declaring all madrassas as “non-schools”. Former HRD Minister Arjun Singh initiated the scheme to provide quality education in madrassas (SPQEM). The HRD ministry under the NDA is continuing with this scheme which is gradually changing the focus of education in a large number of madrassas in the country.

Tawade’s assertions may win him a few brownie points with his hardcore constituency but will only create an unnecessary controversy and do utmost damage to efforts to modernise madrassas. In fact, Tawade can learn a lot from Bengal where madrassas in rural areas have become so popular that they are attracting large number of non-Muslim students.

Girls memorising lessons in a madrassa in Delhi. (Photo: Reuters)

With encouragement from the West Bengal education department, nearly 600 recognised madrassas have introduced mainstream curriculum. High madrassa finals are equal to Class 10 under the secondary board. According to a report, nearly 15% of these madrassas have non-Muslim students. This is nothing new. In pre-Independence India, the first school for many Hindus, especially those from the so-called lower castes in rural Punjab and UP, was a madrassa.

Crying for Reforms

This is not to say that everything is fine with madrassa education. Madrassas need reforms and a new modern curriculum. In India, they don’t do justice to even Islamic education and study of Arabic. Their syllabus is based on 200-year-old Darse-Nizami. Arabic taught here does not prepare the students to be fluent in modern Arabic.

There has been a long-time demand among Muslim scholars to revamp these courses but there is no central board of madrassa education acceptable to all sects. The All India Deeni Madrassa Board established under the guidance of Syed Hamid, former Aligarh Muslim University vice-chancellor, has not been affective.

If managed properly, madrassas can play a very important role in educating Muslim men and women. They can become centres for adult education. It’s important for the central government, educationists and Muslim scholars to come forward and use the madrassa infrastructure to impart quality, modern education.

Skill development should be a very important part of the syllabus. With command over Arabic, knowledge of English and computer science, large numbers of skilled madrassa students can potentially find employment in the Gulf and West Asia and bring in huge remittances. The need today is to break stereotypes and gradually bring these madrassas into the national educational mainstream, without threatening their identity as centres of basic religious education.

Tawade should follow Prime Minister Narendra Modi who recently said, “I want to see Muslims with Quran in one hand and computer in the other hand”.

(The writer is editor, Nai Duniya, an Urdu weekly)