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Maharashtra madrasas have never been schools: Minister

Madrasas were never a school in Maharashtra in the sense of modern education.

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Muslim students recite verses from Holy Quran at a south Mumbai madrasa on Thursday
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A concept started in around 12th century, madrasas in India are a complicated subject. While in some states, post-independence, they continue to have boards that recognise the students passing out that help these pupil to pursue modern education, that is never the case with those in state. Maharashtra is one of those that does not.

"Madrasas were never a school in Maharashtra in the sense of modern education. Children going to madrasas were neither considered going to school before this government, nor are they considered now. They were always children out of school. We have just started a survey of children in the age group of six to 14 years who are out of school and they too figure in it," said Dilip Kamble, state minister for minorities development department.

He added, "Children who go to madrasas can continue to go for their religious education. Our survey is for those who do not go to school." Though largely understood to be imparting religious education, they cater to not more than three percent of the community's population. Mostly children who are of very poor background go to these schools as they do not have any other place to go. Some well-off madrasas also provide secular education. Those in the know of the system claim that that there are more of such madrasas. But overall the emphasis of children going to madrasa being tagged as "out of school", say some, is a non-issue.

Education in Islamic schools can make a person going Hafiz, Alim, Fazil or even a Mufti. A person is a Hafiz when he has memorised the Holy Quran. A person can become a Hafiz in three years and one year extra for revision. However, the number of years of learning may vary from person to person. Once a person has become Hafiz, a two-year course of Qari is given. Qari is basically correct pronunciation of the Holy Quran.

Alim and Fazil are those who have not just memorised the holy Quran but are considered to be Islamic scholars. These courses take over eight years. They are an authority on all type of Islamic education like translation and explanation of Quran, Hadees (way Prophet lived) by Prophet, Fiq (method of worship), logic, Islamic philosophy, Arabic literature, Persian Literature etc.

"But madrasas are not those that are recognised by the government. Also, there is no content analysis of the material they study if there is secular education imparted. So the story is a bit complicated. If one goes by recognition, registered school can only be called as those that are schools. But that does not mean they are out of education system altogether. They are somewhere in the larger learning process," said Abdul Shaban, member of Mehmood Ur Rehman Committee that conducted a study on the community.

Shaban said the idea would be to have a board like they have in other places and an education research institute that helps with uniform and well researched textbooks that are translated and given to them. "After all India is a diverse country and inclusive politics should be the way ahead."

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