By Abdul Bari Masoud, MM News
New Delhi: In the wake of renewed efforts to saffronize education system and history books, minority communities have been demanding the government that they should be made part of the decision-making process and be given a greater say in governmental education bodies. Captains of leading minority-educational institutions, educationists and teachers said in an ambiguous term that minority representation is necessary to check the saffronization drive and solving the educational problems of Muslim community. They also raised the question: “Why the government is so focused on madrassas? What is the motive, while just four per cent children Muslim student study there”.
They said successive governments at the Center focused on modernization of madrassas and allocated funds for the purpose, thousands of mainstream minority educational institutions are suffering for want of funds, facilities and official attention. President of Mumbai based Anjuman-I-Islam Dr Zahir Kazi said there is a case for better representation of minorities in decision-making bodies. “Competent leaders from the minority community should be engaged and their inputs should be taken into account by the government while designing policies and schemes,” he added.
Dr Kazi, who was the chairman of the Sub-Committee of HRD on implementing minority schemes, minority schemes look rosy on paper but timely implementation of central schemes is what matters. He cited an example that the government has earmarked 100 girls’ hostels in the minority-concentrated districts but it has been unable to find land for the same. “But if you involve organizations like Anjuman, we can take the responsibility of setting up these hostels”.
Lauding the contribution of minority (read Muslim) institutions in spreading the light of literacy, noted educationist K S Narayanan said “There is a growing feeling in the minority communities that they be made part of the decision-making process and have a greater say in government bodies in the education sector”. Delving deeper into the ticklish issue, he said successive governments since Independence have vowed in the name of minority education and their educational institutions, but little meets the eye.
“Unfortunately, the media focus in terms of covering minority communities is limited to the events and politics surrounding victimization, persecution or communal flare-ups, and seldom highlights the positives like the significant role played by their educational institutions,” he averred.
Mysore- based Taj Mohammad Khan, who is also Chairman of the Federation of Minority Educational Institutions, told Muslim Mirror that minority-representation will put a check on any attempt to change the syllabus and distortation of historical facts. He also recounted problems in setting up and running a modern educational institution. “Under the Constitution, minorities are entitled to establish, operate and manage educational institutions, but the central and state governments put up a host of objections and impediments like sanction of No Objection Certificates (NoC) and grant”. He said in Karnataka, despite rules stating a teacher for 25 students, in minority schools this ration is skewed to 70 students. “In my school, five teachers retired since 2009 and we are not able to recruit new teachers as government in the name of reducing expenditure doesn’t sanction grants,” he said.
Noted activist from Hyderabad Dr Fakhrudheen Muhammed, who is one of founder of the Muslim educational, social and cultural organization (MESCO), said minority institutions face difficulties and discrimination as far as affiliation is concerned. Therefore, a new body on the pattern of the CBSE should be created. This can help in prompt affiliation of minority-managed higher secondary schools and also maintain their standards. The government should also look to establish a large number of higher secondary schools in minority populated areas. “Over the years government is providing funds, teachers, computers, etc. to Madarsa but the government must help the community in accessing contemporary educational institutions by providing resources and addressing their problems”.
He pointed out that while big schools like Sanskriti Vidhalaya and Delhi Public School gets lands at concessional rates, the minority institutions despite following all rules do not get such facilities. The case in point is the Old Delhi’s Quami Higher Secondary School which is running in tin sheds for over four decades in Eidgah maidan. The old school building was demolished in 1975 during emergency for expanding road with the promise that a new building with come up. Presently there are between 600 and 700 students.
Justice M S A Siddiqui, Chairman, National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (NCMEI), said due to financial crunch, the Muslim community has no access to higher education. “The need of the hour is enhancement of quality in education. In some southern states, the Muslim community has established good institutions. But, in other parts of the country, their educational institutions are found lacking in quality’. He claimed that the Commission has successfully achieved its objectives as it issued approximately 10,000 minority status certificates to minority educational institutions. ‘We have also made certain recommendations to the state governments concerned for safeguarding the educational rights of minorities guaranteed under the Constitution”. However, he regretted that Muslims, despite being the largest among the religious minority communities, were not taking benefit of the constitutional provisions, while the smaller communities like the Christians and the Sikhs were deriving more benefits from NCMEI.
Talking to Muslim Mirror, Dr Shabistan Ghaffar, chairperson of the Committee on Girls Education, NCMEI, said the contribution of Muslim educational institutions during the last two –decades for the development and progress of the country is immense but sadly it was not acknowledge. Dr Ghaffar, who also runs an NGO ‘All India Confederation for Women Empowerment Thorugh Education’, said there are several challenges and issues related to girls’ education. “When we talk to parents, we find that they are very hesitant in sending their girls to schools because of several reasons, including lack of female teachers and unavailability of toilets”. The committee has given more than 30 recommendations to the government but none them implemented.