Singh: Modernisation drive

New Delhi, June 25: Arjun Singh is going to unveil a plan for minority education, including modernisation of madarsas, at a national conference of minority educational institutions here on July 3.

Nearly 100 individuals and institutions have been invited. The invitees include Rafiq Zakaria, Mushirul Hasan, Irfan Habib, the Delhi Archbishop and Congress leader Salman Khursheed.

“The main focus of the conference will be to begin a process of implementing the assurances in the common minimum programme (CMP),” an official of Singh’s human resource development ministry said.

For instance, the conference would deliberate the CMP’s commitment to amend the Constitution for the establishment of a “commission for minority education institutions that will provide direct affiliation of minority professional institutions to central universities”.

The CMP also says: “The UPA (United Progressive Alliance) will promote modern and technical education among all minority communities and ensure social and economic empowerment of minorities through more systematic attention to education and employment.”

This is not the first time the Centre is giving attention, at least on paper, to minority education, modernisation of madarsas and recruitment of a large number of Urdu teachers.

As Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee had promised jobs to 2 lakh Urdu teachers — a move education experts dubbed absurd as it would be difficult to find so many Urdu teachers.

Singh, the human resource development minister, also plans a massive recruitment drive for the teachers.

According to ministry officials, the Muslim population is over 20 per cent in 85 districts of the country. The ministry is planning to hire 30,000 Urdu-medium teachers in secondary-level government schools and is thinking of appointing 90,000 others in primary and upper-primary government schools.

Taken together, the figure is 120,000 Urdu teachers — a figure seemingly unattainable at present.

Modernisation of madarsas is another issue that has been on the agenda of every central government. As HRD minister in 1993, Singh had increased the allocation to minority educational institutions and stressed madarsa modernisation.

No government, however, has been able to make much headway in this regard. But Singh continues to advocate madarsas joining mainstream education.