Scheme to impart secular education in Madarsas

The government is devising a scheme for impacting mainstream education at Islamic religious schools or Madarsas, the Rajya Sabha was informed today.

Replying to questions, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said the government was developing a scheme to impart secular education in Madarsas without impacting the religious education they disseminate.

"We want to develop a national consensus on the issue," he said adding the idea was to give equivalent of Central Board of Secondary Education education in Madarsas to allow students attending the religious school to move to mainstream institutions like polytechnics.

Sibal said Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan was largely a successful scheme. Against 86 per cent of the habitat being served by a primary school in 2002, the coverage has increased to 98 per cent. The coverage of upper primary school has increased from 78 per cent to 92 per cent while dropout rate has come down from 39 per cent to 25.4 per cent.

He said the Government plans to bring the Right to Education Bill during the current session of Parliament.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has said that during 2001-02 to 2004-05, an amount of Rs 53 crore was expenditure not covered under the SSA guidelines, he said. Besides there have been reports from states indicating instances of financial irregularities.