Centre to revamp madrasa education, make board affiliation, geo tagging mandatory
New Delhi, June 25 The Human Resources Development Ministry (HRD Ministry) is working on a plan to revamp Madrasa education in the country under the Scheme to Provide Quality Education in Madrassas (SPQEM), making it mandatory for the institutions to be affiliated to either madrassa boards or state boards.
Sources in the HRD ministry said that states have submitted proposals, which are being studied, and that based on the budget available the plan to give a makeover to madrasa education will be taken forward.
“The SPQEM is aimed at bringing about qualitative improvement in madrasa education and enable students to attain standards of the national education system in formal subjects. The government is planning to make affiliation to the madrasa board or state school boards compulsory,” a source said.
Under the revamp, the government is also planning to map madrasas in the country based on their Global Positioning System. “For this, the HRD ministry is planning to make Unique Identification mandatory for madrasas to trace their physical location via GPS,” added the source. Last year, the ministry had asked the madrasas covered by the SPQEM to provide their GPS location. Those that did not provide the GPS details had to wait for the teachers’ payment, News18.com has learnt. Some madrasas are likely to oppose the move as an affiliation is perceived by them as “government interference” in their autonomous functioning.
The existing features of the scheme enable madrasas to strengthen capacities for teaching of the formal curriculum subjects like Science, Mathematics, Language, Social Studies etc. through enhanced payment of teacher honorarium.
The past modifications on teaching materials have encouraged linkage of madrasas with National Institute for Open Schooling (NIOS), as accredited centers for providing formal education, which will enable children studying in such madrasas to get certification for Classes 5, 8, 10 and 12.
To promote education in Muslim-dominated areas, the government is planning to open more schools under newly merged schemes, now called Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan.
