A survey conducted on 500 prominent Madrassas across India has revealed that 85 per cent of them do not teach Social Science, English and Mathematics to the students. While they fared well in terms of infrastructure and other facilities, teaching part was not up to the mark, found a survey conducted by Centre for Educational Research and Training (CERT), an organisation that works on education, with a focus on minority.

Based on the findings of the survey, the organisation has also submitted recommendations to Ministry of Human Resource Development and Ministry of Minority Affairs for improving the quality of Madrassa education in the country.

Most of the madrassas that were surveyed were the top ones located mostly in Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka. The survey found that while 81 per cent have the necessary infrastructure like classrooms, toilets and other things, they did not pay good salary to their teachers. Teachers were paid below Rs 5,000 in 75 per cent of the madrassas.

"Government plans to build toilets in madrassas, they plan to launch 'Teacher, Tiffin, Toilet' scheme for the betterment of madrassas, but this will not help in improving the condition. Madrassas already have the basic infrastructure like toilets as they are located adjacent to mosques. What is needed is improvement in quality of education, as our survey has found that most of the prominent madrassas do not teach basic subjects to their students," said Thouseef Ahmed from CERT.

"On the basis of our findings, we have submitted a set of recommendations to the Ministry of Human Resource Development to include in the New Education Policy, which is still under the finalisation stage," he added.

The survey also found out that while 60 per cent of madrassas have computer labs, but only 15 per cent out of them are in working conditions.

Some of the recommendations include teaching Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, and computer education on a compulsory basis, to appoint physical education teachers, providing sports equipment, and to ensure sufficient play grounds.

There are around 60,000 madrassas in the country, with most of them situated in Uttar Pradesh.

As Arabic attains prominence even in terms of the geo-political situation of Middle Eastern and African countries including all Muslim countries, the Government must make provision to include Arabic in second and third slots of language selections, read another recommendation.

The group also demanded that teaching of Hindi and English language should be made compulsory and salary for teachers should be fixed at a minimum Rs. 25000.

FINDINGS