“Once upon a time, madrasas made a lot of contributions to the world, especially in West Asia. If we look at madrasas of the Medieval Age, they used to teach all subjects, including science and maths. Even Non-Muslims used to send their children to study at madrasas. But nowadays the quality and standard of madrasas is gradually diminishing. It is not the fact that all madrasas are in bad condition as there are some exceptions,” said Tauseef Ahmed, Director of CERT (Centre for Educational Research and Training).
CERT was established by Students Islamic Organisation of India (SIO). It aims at research and training activities in the field of education. It organised a symposium on ‘Madrasa Education: Issues and Challenges’ at SIO headquarters in New Delhi on 19 August. In the programme, madrasa pass-outs from different schools of thought expressed their opinion over the issues and challenges pertaining to madrasa education system.
Regarding the madrasa education system, SIO conducted a survey of madrasas belonging to different schools of thought in different states. The survey was based on the infrastructure, community participation, teaching environment, innovative activities, faculty, and integration of general and religious education. The survey report presented some recommendations in order to elevate the condition of madrasas. The establishment of non-governmental madrasa regulating body, arrangement for sports and physical education, compulsory modern education (science and maths), extra-social and cultural activities and the determining of the basic salary minimum up to 25000 for the teachers are some of the key recommendations.
Speaking on the topic, Wasi Miya Khan, who passed out from Darul Uloom Deoband, said that we have to see that whether the present education system of madrasas is fulfilling the aims and objectives for which they had been established. It is doing great service to some extent but there are a lot of shortcomings and faults. A lot of changes are needed in the syllabus pertaining to the Qur’ān and Hadīth. The things which are currently taught in madrasas fail to meet the challenges of the present time.
Musaddiq Mubeen, who passed out from Al Jamia Al Islamia, Kerala, said madrasas should produce experts in regional, national and international languages, to provide open atmosphere in the field of research, to establish human resource development centre and to promote extra curriculum activities along with Islamic education. And students having roots into the Islamic education should have opportunity to go into the fields wherever they want.
Abdul Wadud, National Secretary of SIO, said that in general, madrasas have been established for the work of Dawah, reformation and the protection of Islam. There are a lot of talks on Dawah and reformation in madrasas but they did not succeed in these things. We must introspect.