India's successful madrasa speak English

Cairo, NU Online
As madrasa (Islamic schools) have become a mainstream education provider for thousands of Indians, the government of the eastern state of West Bengal is planning new English language madrasa to acquire students, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, with proficiency in the foreign language.

“If everything goes well, soon all 19 districts of West Bengal will see 19 new madrasa where the medium of instruction will be English,” minority development and madrasa education minister Abdus Sattar told The National on Sunday, December 20.<>

“In the first phase we plan to build 11 such English medium madras in 11 minority-dominated districts of the state.”

Students in the new madrasa will study their subjects, including Islamic studies, in English.

“We believe in modernising our traditional form of education so that boys and girls studying at our institutions can compete with the best,” said Sattar as quoted by Islamonline.com.

“We shall leave no stone unturned to give our students the best in modern education.”

Madrasa have become a mainstream education provider for tens of thousands of Indian students.

West Bengal has 474 state-run madrasa offering the same curriculum in the government schools.

Non-Muslims make up 20 percent of students in West Bengal’s madrasa.

Many of the students are groomed to become engineers, doctors, scientists and other modern professionals.

“Modernisation of the curriculum in our madrasa has been going on for a while,” Abdus Sattar said.

“Modern science, mathematics, computer applications … have already been introduced and they have been helping the madrasa students immensely.

Lifeline

Abdus Sattar said the new English language madrasa will be a lifeline for thousands of poor Indians.

“These madrasa will freely offer poor Muslims the opportunity to get quality English-medium education which is almost inaccessible to them otherwise.”

Indian Muslims have suffered decades of social and economic neglect and oppression.

The Muslim minority have been decrying for years that they comprise only a tiny percentage of police, army officers, public servants and public university students.

They register lower educational levels and, as a consequence, higher unemployment rates than the majority Hindus and other minorities like Christians and Sikhs.

“Now, the English medium madrasa will prepare our students for better opportunities in higher education and modern careers in more efficient ways,” Abdus Sattar said.

“If we continue to follow only the vernacular medium, students of the minority community will be left behind. So we thought of launching the madrasa in English medium so that the minority students get the best education.”

English had been taught in West Bengal schools, including at the primary level, since the colonial era.

But the language was abolished by the ruling Marxist Left Front in the 1980s.

Two decades later, English was reintroduced in schools after protests from locals that their kids were suffering at higher education levels and job markets over their poor English.

“We badly need the English medium madrasa to supplement our existing system,” said Nurul Islam, the headmaster of Khalatpur High Madrasah.

“Already many of our students have managed footholds in some modern professions.

“The English medium madrasa will help immensely in developing students’ personality which will brighten their prospects in the modern job market.” (dar)