Minority school board plea

Updated on: Thursday, January 21, 2010

The demand for a separate board for all minority-run schools sparks off a controversy

MPs opposed to mainstreaming madarsa education have asked the minister for a separate agency to affiliate minority schools and provide them financial support. The demand was conveyed to Sibal at two meetings he held last week with A few Muslim MPs who had earlier rejected a bill to create the proposed Central Madarsa Board (CMB), sources said. The idea was most forcefully proposed by Mahmood Madani, leader of the Jamiat-Ulama-i-Hind, and a Rashtriya Lok Dal MP in the Rajya Sabha, the sources said.

Although the ministry is uneasy about the proposal from the MPs, it has not rejected the suggestion. The ministry is hoping the suggestion will provide the seed for a consensus on a mechanism to help madarsa students enter formal higher education. Most universities, including those run by the government, do not admit madarsa students directly because of an absence of any quality standardisation of education in Islamic seminaries.

Minority school board plea

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