Lucknow, 15 Sept: The Uttar Pradesh government intends to introduce a proposal amending the Uttar Pradesh Ashashkiya Arbi-Farsi Viniyamavali, 2016, to provide unregularised madrasa pupils access to modern education.
State Minority Welfare and Waqf Minister Dharampal Singh has directed his department to submit a proposal to alter the Act. “The goal of the state government is to ensure that students from the minority community can join the mainstream through religious education as well as modern education, including science,” he stated.
He stated that vocational training and computer education should be conducted efficiently in madrasas. In Uttar Pradesh, there are now 16,513 government-funded regularised madrasas and 8,449 unrecognised or unregularised madrasas.
Meanwhile, Iftikhar Ahmad Javed, chairperson of the Uttar Pradesh Madrasa Board, has written to the state government, asking what should be done about unrecognized madrasas whose owners were lobbying the board to grant them official recognition.
“The unrecognized madrasa owners expected that after the government survey, they would all be validated and affiliated with the board, but now they claim they have been duped. Why would an unrecognized madrasa follow government guidelines if they are not affiliated?” said Iftikhar.
“The unrecognized madrasa owners have repeatedly stated that they want to introduce computers and science alongside religious teachings, but they need the government’s support,” he continued.
Meanwhile, in response to the minister’s directives, additional chief secretary Monica S Garg stated, “Guidelines received from the minister will be followed in letter and spirit, and work will be done to make the schemes related to the all-round uplift of the minority community dynamic and more effective.”
