Muslims are educationally and socially the most backward among minorities in India. Low literacy rate apart, the difference in enrolment rate between Muslims and other communities is alarming. Average years of schooling among Muslim students is less than that of other minority communities. They also suffer from lack of access to quality education.
These are the findings of an 11-member committee drafted by the Maulana Azad Education Foundation (MAEF), an agency affiliated to the Union minority affairs ministry, in January. The committee was formed to suggest modalities for establishment of institutions across the country to facilitate educational development of minorities.
The panel, of which retired Bihar-cadre IAS officer Afzal Amanullah was the convener, submitted its report to Union minister of state for minority affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Thursday.
The report recommended a three-tier pyramid structure with central schools at the bottom, community colleges at the middle, and national institutes having masters, doctoral, and post-doctorate level programmes and research infrastructure at par with international standards at the top
The panel suggested setting up of 211 co-education central schools – 167 in rural areas/blocks of minority dominant and minority concentrated districts and 44 in minority dominant and minority concentrated cities.
Also, these should have only day scholars, as per CBSE curriculum, from Class 1 to 12.
The panel wanted the foundation to create a structure for management of these schools at the central and local levels and said they should compulsorily allow teaching and non-teaching staff to stay in accommodation on the campus.
For higher education, the committee recommended setting up of 25 community colleges across the country in line with the 2012 UGC guidelines.
These community colleges will aim at making higher education accessible to children who have dropped out of the system and to integrate relevant skills into their education.
Apart from regular courses, the colleges should offer the option of skill-based courses in traditional and new trades to its students.
At the apex level, the committee has recommended setting up of five national institutes in science & technology, health & allied sciences, architecture planning & design, climate change & disaster management, and renewable energy and food security.
The proposed institutes will foster education and research in multi-disciplinary, inter disciplinary areas without any constraint of academic department. The institutes will also offer programmes at masters, doctoral, and post-doctoral levels.
The committee felt that for its recommendations to fulfil their objectives it was imperative that all institutions have sufficient autonomy, are free from excessive bureaucratic control and have sufficient provisions for financial grants each year.
“First of all, I would like to make it clear that the institutions we have suggested would be open to students of all categories,” Amanullah told The Telegraph. “Emphasis would be laid on opening these institutions in minority-dominated areas so that children of these communities have better access to these institutions. We foresee one third of the students at these institutions being from minority communities.”
He also said that people of minority communities have been asked to send their children to madrasas and other similar institutions before 9.30am so that they could then attend regular schools to be opened.
Former Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) vice-chancellor Lt General Zameeruddin Shah, Jamia Milia Islamia professor Talat Ahmed, ex-Calicut varsity VC Syed Iqbal Hasnain and former MP Shahid Siddiqui are prominent members of the panel. Banker Udayan Bose, educationists Firoz Bakht Ahmed and Qamar Agha and social activist Kulsoom Noor Saifullah are the other members. MAEF secretary D. Madhukar Naik is a member secretary of the committee.
[“Source-telegraphindia”]
