State go-ahead for madrasa makeover

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In a major development, the state government decided to clear the madrasa modernisation scheme that would cover nearly two lakh students from the Muslim minority community studying in around 3,000 madrasas across Maharashtra.
The state Cabinet on Wednesday approved the scheme moved by the minority affairs department. However, aspiring madrasas have to fulfill some norms to get financial assistance from the state government. The scheme would enable the madrasas to provide modern education to its students, apart from providing religious education. The department has allocated a provision of `10 crore for this year to cover around 200 madrasas initially. It would be increased based upon the success of the scheme in the next year.
According to the scheme, each and every madrasa would get `2 lakh for its infrastructure development as a one-time financial assistance. It includes renovation of the structure, facilities of drinking water and toilets etc. Besides, the madrasas would be entitled to `50,000 for the setting up of a library and science laboratory. They would also receive `5,000 annually for the maintenance of library and laboratory for the next three years, minority affairs minister Arif Naseem Khan informed.
They will be allowed to appoint a maximum of three teachers to give modern education to their students and the state government would pay their salary under the scheme. The teachers would teach them subjects like Science, Mathematics, Social Sciences, Hindi, Marathi and English, as approved by the state education board. One teacher will be provided for every 40 students. A B.Ed teacher will be paid a salary of `8,000, while a D.Ed teacher will get `6,000 every month.
The scheme is based on the 15-point programme of the Prime Minister, formulated on the recommendations of the Justice Rajendra Sachar committee report on the social, economic and educational condition of the Muslim community across the country.
The scheme also provides scholarship to students studying in higher secondary schools. “Students staying at madrasas and also those studying in Class 9 and 10 at a regular school will be entitled to get `4,000 annually as scholarship, while students of Class 11 and 12 will get `5,000 on an annual basis. This scholarship will be given to a total of 1,000 students every year,” the minister said. The state government is of the view that the scheme will help bring the community into the mainstream. “Only religious education is not enough to get jobs for the livelihood of students studying in madrasas. Hence, this scheme was formulated to give modern education to them. This will help them to go for higher studies in future,” Mr Khan said.
The norms that have to be completed by the madrasas are: they have to get themselves registered with the state Wakf board, they should have a property card or lease document of the property where it functions and it should submit audit report of the past three years. The decision to allow financial assistance to the madrasas will be taken by a district-level committee, headed by the collector. The committee will scrutinise the documents before giving its go-ahead to each and every proposal.
The minister also made it clear that providing financial help does not mean that the government’s intention is to interfere in the administration or to have control over the madrasas. “States like Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh are already implementing such schemes. To remove the fears and misconception among the madrasas, the minority affairs department will also come up with awareness programmes,” Mr Khan apprised.