Amid Shortage of Funds and Infrastructure Madrassas Gasping for Life

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, Sept 22: Madrassas located in different parts of the State are crippled with a series of problems starting from shortage of teachers to infrastructure and administration. The situation has come to such a pass that a fourth grade employee is the only caretaker of Rangia Arabic College for a couple of years.

Talking to reporters here on Saturday, ‘Madrassa Bachaw Andulon Assam’ president Maulana Choudhury Usama Mabrur and general secretary Maulana Nazmul Hussain said that as on 2015, as many as 513 posts have been lying vacant in 401 provincialized Madrassas across the State.

Moreover, the duo revealed that while only one teacher has been forced to mentor 300 students at Deorail Title Madrassa, four other teachers have been teaching as many as 600 students at Singagria Senior Madrassa for years.

They said that Madrassa education went wrong in the State ever since the Directorate of Madrassa Education, Assam was disbanded and its academic part was handed over to the Directorate of Secondary Education, Assam.

They said that the initiative to introduce modernization in the Madrassas is widely accepted except in the Quran and Hadis-related subjects. They speculated that it would bring a sea change in the Madrassas.

On the allegations of Madrassas being used for antisocial activities, they said that they would like the government taking tough action against anybody if found guilty.

Moreover, former the Education Minister had announced earlier that a recruitment drive would be conducted for 296 Madrassa teachers. However, none has been appointed for the last three years, they added.

At present, there are as many as 1,000 Madrassas in different parts of the State which are yet to be provincialized. Around 100 cases relating to madrassa education have been pending in various courts in the State.

The duo appealed to Dispur to discuss the problems of Madrassas during the Assembly session beginning on Monday.