RTE not to impact madrasas since they arent schools
Urmi A Goswami NEW DELHI
CONCERNS over the stringent norms of the Right to Education (RTE) being enforced on madrasas appear to be unfounded.For the government the madrasas do not qualify as schools,therefore they are not within the ambit of the RTE.
Sources in the HRD ministers office said that the government has no intention of bringing madrasas under the Right to Education.Madrasas are not treated as schools,therefore they do not come under the purview of the Right to Education, a government official said.
Apprehensions that the RTE and its norms would be applicable to madrasas arise from the laws definition of schools as any recognised school imparting elementary education.This definition is not applicable for madrasas.The primary identity of the madrasa is not that of an elementary school,but one that offers religious instruction.
The RTE is silent on madrasas because these are not treated as schools by the government.The ministry has a separate scheme for the modernisation of madrasas,which encourages these units to offer their students modern,secular subjects along with deeni talim,or religious instruction.
Under the Scheme for Providing Quality Education in Madrasas (SPQEM),the government encourages madrasas to offer modern subjects and incentivises training of teachers.But at no point are madrasas treated as schools, a senior ministry official said.The effort will be to equip students with more than religious instruction,as well as provide an alternative should these students opt to pursue an education in a regular school at any point.
Suspicion has been the leitmotif of the relationship between the madrasas and the ministry of human resource development.The madrasas are apprehensive that the government would use the RTE to control what are essentially religious schools.The ministry,for its part,is keen to convey that it is not going to interfere with these centres that are focused primarily on religious education.Sources indicated that the ministry was unwilling to take any step that would hamper the efforts to encourage madrasas to offer modern subjects alongside religious instruction.
Urmi A Goswami NEW DELHI
CONCERNS over the stringent norms of the Right to Education (RTE) being enforced on madrasas appear to be unfounded.For the government the madrasas do not qualify as schools,therefore they are not within the ambit of the RTE.
Sources in the HRD ministers office said that the government has no intention of bringing madrasas under the Right to Education.Madrasas are not treated as schools,therefore they do not come under the purview of the Right to Education, a government official said.
Apprehensions that the RTE and its norms would be applicable to madrasas arise from the laws definition of schools as any recognised school imparting elementary education.This definition is not applicable for madrasas.The primary identity of the madrasa is not that of an elementary school,but one that offers religious instruction.
The RTE is silent on madrasas because these are not treated as schools by the government.The ministry has a separate scheme for the modernisation of madrasas,which encourages these units to offer their students modern,secular subjects along with deeni talim,or religious instruction.
Under the Scheme for Providing Quality Education in Madrasas (SPQEM),the government encourages madrasas to offer modern subjects and incentivises training of teachers.But at no point are madrasas treated as schools, a senior ministry official said.The effort will be to equip students with more than religious instruction,as well as provide an alternative should these students opt to pursue an education in a regular school at any point.
Suspicion has been the leitmotif of the relationship between the madrasas and the ministry of human resource development.The madrasas are apprehensive that the government would use the RTE to control what are essentially religious schools.The ministry,for its part,is keen to convey that it is not going to interfere with these centres that are focused primarily on religious education.Sources indicated that the ministry was unwilling to take any step that would hamper the efforts to encourage madrasas to offer modern subjects alongside religious instruction.
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