U.P. madrassas to teach in English, Hindi too

Will follow syllabus and books prescribed by NCERT.

A young Indian Muslim girl learns to read the Quran at a madrasa during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, May 22, 2018. Islam's holiest month is a period of intense prayer, self-discipline, dawn-to-dusk fasting and nightly feasts. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

Along with Urdu, madrassas in Uttar Pradesh will now be required to also teach students in English and Hindi.

The madrassas in the State would also have to follow the syllabus of the National Council of Education Training and Research (NCERT) and the books prescribed under it.

The decision was passed by the State Cabinet presided by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday evening.

The Uttar Pradesh Madrasa Education Board on May 15 had passed a decision prescribing NCERT text books for teaching modern subjects in the recognised Madarsas in the State. The board had said the the decision would come into effect from the academic session 2018-2019.

According to a government spokesperson, while there was already a provision for madrassas to teach subjects like English, Math, computer, science and social sciences along with religious education, the board had no prescribed syllabus or books for it.

“It was not possible to incorporate the subject-wise and standard-wise study material of NCERT into the syllabus of madrassas till the medium of language included English and Hindi along with Urdu,” the spokesperson said. The government has made necessary amendments to the Uttar Pradesh non-government Arabic-Persian madrassas (recognition, administration and service rules 2016), introduced by the previous Samajwadi Party while in power.

Shrikant Sharma, State Cabinet Minister, said the decision would “improve the quality of education” and also bring madrassa “students into the mainstream.”