Revision as of 21:47, 30 August 2017

Scheme for Providing Quality Education in Madrassas, i) Funds released, 2009-15; ii) States with highest number of madrassa covered under the scheme (since 2009-10); Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, August 8, 2016

Friday holiday

2017: Assam breaks a British-era tradition

Prabin Kalita & BB Goswami, BREAKING TRADITION - BJP govt makes madrassas junk holiday, Dec 10, 2016: The Times of India

Breaking a British-era tradition, majority of madrassas in the state remained open on Friday after the BJP-led state government declared the weekday holiday as illegal.

Education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who brought to the fore this tradition followed by madrassas in the state without government sanction, on Thursday said, “From next Friday , if any madrassa remains shut, the head teacher will be placed under suspension immediately .“ According to the state go vernment portal, there are 707 recognised and provincialised madrassas in the state. It was during the British rule in 1934 when the provincial govern ment of Assam established Madrassa Education Board in Sylhet (undivided India) with nine madrassas to educate the Muslims. Friday has been a holiday since then. After Independence, the institution was renamed as State Madrassa Education Board, Assam.

Sarma said governmentrun madrassas will only have an hour's break for the `jumma namaz' (Friday prayers) instead of a day's holiday .

Recognition, state government aid

2017: UP to geo-tag madrassas

Rohan Dua, UP madrassas under Yogi govt lens, August 30, 2017: The Times of India

To Be Geo-Tagged, Will Have To Give Govt Layouts, Teachers' Bank Details

All madrassas across Uttar Pradesh will be geo-tagged by the state government through a GPS-based service as part of what the BJPled dispensation has described as its efforts to weed out fake students and staff. In addition, the state government has also asked madrassas to share maps of classrooms, photographs of the building, and the teachers' bank account details. The institutes have also been told to upload each employee's Aadhaar card details on a government portal.

The order, a copy of which is with TOI, was issued on July 31. The government has directed the registrar of the UP Madrassa Shiksha Parishad to include all the state's 16,000 recognised madrassas in the geo-tagging initiative. Consequently, each madrassa will be identified by a `unified district information system for education (UDISE)' code.

Issued by principal secretary Monika Garg, the order states that each madrassa would have to be registered with a newly launched government website -madarsaboard.upsdc.gov.in -by Octo ber 15 to retain their recognition and state government aid.

“Development“ has been listed as one of the eight main reasons behind the move.“The launch of the portal and other services is to ensure development, competency-mapping, simplification of process and improvement in edu cation quality of madrassas,“ says the order.

According to the order, the move aims to “curtail duplication of teaching staff as well as beneficiary students“.The bank accounts of the teaching staff and educationrelated officials at the madrassas will be verified through a public finance management system.

“Only after the financial details of teachers and staff have been collected and their bank accounts verified, (will) their salaries be disbursed,“ the order states. As part of the initiative, each madrassa will also have to state its building layout, area of campus, etc on the website. “There would not be any tweaking in the data related to the madrassas as all district minority officers (DMOs) will be able to lock the details with a digital signature. No madrassa will be able to alter the data related to any madrassa after thorough verification,“ the order states.

Ahead of this Independence Day , the Yogi Aditya Nath government had issued a controversial order making videography of celebrations mandatory for madrassas, but not government schools.