Spelling out plans of his ministry, Union minority affairs minister K. Rahman Khan on Saturday said the first priority would be to ensure better education facilities to members of minority community, including establishment of five private universities across the country.
Replying to felicitations at KPCC office here, Mr Khan said “the Prime Minister's 15-point programme will be a major resource for us to provide infrastructure in all schools for minorities.
The first university for minorities in south India is likely to come up in Srirangapatna shortly. The remaining four universities will be established in Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal."
He added that the proposed universities would on public-private partnership with 50 per cent seats reserved for students of minorities. Mr Rahman Khan said the Centre would pursue its agenda of modernizing Madrasas by motivating religious heads.
“It is tricky subject. We can not force religious heads to accept our views but we are in the process of making them understand the necessity of modernising Madrasas. We are offering teachers in subjects like science, mathematics and English.
This is apart from trying and encouraging them to upgrade their Madrasas into proper educational institutions. We simplified norms to get CBSE affiliation too," he added.