Urdu varsity to help madrassas come to mainstream, says VC

: Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU) is keen to play a role in facilitating the mainstreaming of madrassas, its vice-chancellorMohammad Aslam Parvaiz said Wednesday.

Also, the university plans to provide MOOCs (massive open online courses) in Urdu thereby ensuring its access to Urdu population, Aslam Parvaiz said after inaugurating roundtable discussions here on the draft National Education Policy (NEP) 2019, according to an official release.

Parvaiz expressed satisfaction over the fact that MANUU has succeeded in increasing women enrolment ratio in recent years, which is one of the thrust areas of the draft policy, the release said.

Reiterating the importance of mother tongue in education, he stressed the need to promote Urdu at the school- level to overcome the issues of not finding suitable candidates in the reserved categories.

"To make MANUU more inclusive, there is a need to introduce Urdu at schools. Moreover, madrassa graduates must be given a formal lateral entry opportunity at college or university-level," Aslam Parvaiz said pointing out that if MOOCs are not made available in Urdu, then Urdu and its speakers would lag behind others in terms of education.

MANUU Pro Vice-Chancellor prof Ayub Khan and its Registrar M A Sikandar were among those who spoke, the release added.