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| India-Pakistan |
| No education quota for Muslims says Indian panel |
| 2007-01-31 |
| NEW DELHI, JANUARY 29: Faced with sharp division of opinion, a committee appointed by Union HRD Minister Arjun Singh has decided against recommending quotas for Muslims in educational institutions. The committee has recommended instead more neighbourhood schools in Muslim areas, scholarships, vocational training for youths and more seats in minority institutions such as the Aligarh Muslim University. The committee, headed by Arjun Singh’s deputy, Minister of State Mohammed Ali Ashraf Fatmi, reached this conclusion after deliberations on steps to improve education for minorities, taking off from the Sachar panel report. “While Fatmi had a strong personal view of recommending reservations for Muslims because the community is socially and educationally backward, a group of members of this committee opposed the idea of reserving seats for the minority community,” sources said. When his comments were sought, Fatmi declined, saying “we will submit the report to Arjun Singh by January 31. I cannot talk about it now.” It is learnt that, instead of reservation, committee members emphasised the need for more neighbourhood schools, especially for Muslim girls, on the lines of Navodaya Vidyalayas opened in regions with concentration of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe populations. “The panel has decided that the government should set up primary schools for Muslim girls, on the lines of Navodaya Vidyalayas, wherever Muslim population exceeds 1,000,” said sources. “Just as SC and ST populations are prioritised, areas with Muslim population will also be given priority for schools.” Also recommended are school transport for girls, vocational training for Muslim youths, especially those belonging to families of artisans. The report also seeks to increase the number of seats in minority institutions such as Aligarh Muslim University, Maulana Azad National University and Jamia Millia Islamia. “Although Muslim MPs had asked for more campuses, the committee has left that to individual universities, and has asked them to indulge instead in capacity-building exercise,” sources said. The panel has asked for scholarships to be given to needy Muslim children. “The youngsters need to be encouraged and, therefore, scholarships for poor Muslim children will have to be in place,” sources said. While mainstream education for Muslim children is being emphasised, modernisation of madrasas is not being ignored. “Though hardly four per cent of school-going Muslims go to madrasas, there will be focus on teaching of modern subjects there,” the sources said. On coaching facilities for Muslims seeking admission to IITs and IIMs, sources said the focus would be on “coaching for general improvement across the gamut, and not just competitive-exam specific.” The report follows the “path” set by the Sachar committee but the Planning Commission’s Working Group report on the uplift of Muslims, authored by panel member Zoya Hasan, is also being looked at. On the panel were advisor Sudeep Banerjee, higher education secretary R P Agrawal, school education secretary Champak Chatterjee, CBSE chairman Ashok Ganguly, NCERT director Krishna Kumar, JNU vice-chancellor B B Bhattacharya, Jamia Hamdard chancellor Syed Hamid, academic Zafar Ali Naqvi, UGC vice-chairman Mool Chand Sharma, Hyderabad University vice-chancellor Syed E Hasnain and joint secretary Sunil Kumar. |
| Posted by:john |