The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Proposal to introduce formal education in `madrasas'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 16, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Proposal to introduce formal education in `madrasas'

Staff Reporter

Integration of State syllabus with religious education

Concern over poor results
Focus on integration to meet competition

Need to bring back children to schools underscored

Hyderabad: The Government has proposed introduction of formal education in 354 `madrasas' across the State during the year with a view to integrate the State syllabus with religious education, said the Minister for Minorities Welfare, Mohd. Fareeduddin.

He was participating in the workshop on "Integrated quality education in Madrasas" organised by the Child and Police (CAP) Project in collaboration with USAID and the State Project Director, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, here on Tuesday. A large number of representatives from madrasas, NGOs and Government officials attended the programme.

Competition

Along with religious education, children should also be imparted with formal education so that they could compete with others. Despite a huge amount of money being spent on education, the achievement was not up to the expected level. The Government alone could not be held responsible for this, Mr. Fareeduddin said.

He said there was greater awareness now about imparting education to all. He congratulated the efforts being made by some organisations to streamline `madrasas' with modern education. K. Chandramouli, State Project Director, SSA, said integration of formal education with religious education in madrasas would ensure equal job opportunities to all.

He appreciated the excellent work being done by some madrasas in imparting regular education.

New strategies

Kathy Bartlett, Senior programme officer, Aga Khan Foundation, Geneva, said all over the world a large number of children were out of school and called for adopting new strategies to bring them back to school.

She appreciated the concern and commitment being shown by the Government and NGOs in India towards universalisation of elementary education.

Earlier, Nalini Gangadharan, chairperson, CAP Project, explained the pilot project launched last year to provide formal education to children in the age group of 6 to 16 years in three madrasas - one at Musheerabad and two in Shapoornagar.

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