The Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry has decided to financially support regular subjects like maths and science that may soon be taught in madrasas as part of its modernisation process. It will, however, not fund the teaching of traditional subjects like Qur’anic and Hadith interpretation and Fiqh. The HRD ministry will link madrasas with the National Institute of Open School and introduce mathematics, social sciences, Hindi, English and other regular subjects as part of the modernisation process of the religious schools.
The course will incorporate standard content that is being offered by the NIOS, and the students will also have to appear for examinations in all these additional modern subjects that would soon be taught. The examinations will be conducted by NIOS. As for the demands to treat madrasa degrees at par with those of public schools, the ministry made it clear that “to put their degrees at par with public school certificates, assessment is required. And the students have to study additional subjects to make their degrees valid as per rules.”