The Maulana Azad National Urdu University’s efforts to narrow the divide between religious and contemporary modes of education has met with cold response from Madrassa students as only seven have registered for its bridge course.
The year-long course, plans of which were announced in 2016, seeks to bring Madrassa students into the fold of mainstream education. Deans of various schools in the varsity were required to design the bridge course that would bring them close to the subjects taught in B.A., BSc, B.Com and polytechnic courses. The varsity recently announced admissions for the year 2018-19 for the course. Sources at MANUU said the intake for the bridge course was low given that the prospectus shows a list of 215 approved Madrassas from across the country, 23 from Telangana alone, from where students could be taken in.
A faculty member, requesting anonymity, offered an explanation as to why so few Madrassa students came forward to enrol in the bridge course. “There should have been greater awareness on the programme. Larger campaigns should have been embarked upon. Also, the problem is that the subjects in Madrassass are largely based on theology and language. A large number of Madrassa students find it tough to understand physical and biological sciences,” he said.
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Experts said once a student graduates from a Madrassa, emphasis would be on seeking employment. “After going through the rigmarole for eight or 10 years, we are seeing that the willingness to enter a completely different education set-up takes the backseat,” an expert said, adding that a large number of Madrassas identified are for women. “Several government studies have shown that the percentage of Muslim women in higher educational institutions is low as compared to other communities,” he said.
Central Admission Committee Chairman P. Fazal-ur-Rahman confirmed the low admission in the bridge course. “It’s true that there were seven or eight admissions. They faced some difficulty while studying science. We thought that a batch of less than 10 students would not bring about a classroom culture,” he said.