A portal will be set up by the government to gather information about recognised and unrecognised madrassas across the country, said a parliamentary panel report. On Monday, December 12, the parliamentary standing committee report was tabled in Lok Sabha.
To have more comprehensive data on madrasas across India, the Ministry of Minority Affairs told the panel that it has engaged an agency to develop an MIS (Management Information System) portal for the madrasas. In this regard, the report said, “The states/UTs will be requested to upload the information regarding madrasa schools on the said portal and the portal will capture information of such recognised as well as unrecognised institutions," as stated in a report by PTI.
Further, giving more details, the ministry told the committee, “It is envisaged the data collected from the states/UTs through the portal would facilitate in informed policy-making as well as in effective implementation of schemes." Responding to this, the committee said that the ministry has not given any date as to by when it will have the MIS portal. “Hence, the committee desires that the MIS portal may be developed urgently in a time-bound manner,” it stressed.
According to official data, there are as many as 26,928 registered madrasas with about 1.17 lakh teachers and the student enrollment in these institutions is more than 43.52 lakh. Moreover, the parliamentary panel has flagged that in the absence of detailed information with regard to the madrasas, including available infrastructure, teachers and students, as only 10 states or union territories have entered details on the UDISE portal, it would be difficult to implement the New Education Policy in madrasas.
“The committee is of the opinion that unless the ministry has complete information about madrasas, they may find it difficult in implementing the New Education Policy across the madrasas and, as a result, the scheme will suffer from proper assessment of the fund requirement and would deprive students/teachers from the benefits of the scheme,” it said.
Accordingly, the committee has recommended that the ministry collect information within three months so that even madrassas can avail the facilities under the scheme. Further, it directed the ministry to issue a direction to all states or UTs to allocate information regarding recognised or unrecognised madrasas, including their infrastructure, teachers and students in three months so that all the madrasas would get the facilities available under the scheme, as stated in a report by PTI.
