During the hearing of a case related to Uttar Pradesh’s madrasas in the Supreme Court, the issue of education given here was raised. The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) expressed concern and said that children in madrasas are not able to take advantage of the Right to Education Act. There, children are only taught about things related to Islam and the necessary standards are also being ignored at the time of recruitment of teachers.
The NCPCR lawyer said that madrasas are exempted from the Right to Education Act 2009, so the children studying here are not only deprived of formal education available in schools, but are also not able to get the benefits of mid-day meals, uniforms and studying with trained teachers. This hearing was going on a petition filed against the decision of the Allahabad High Court, in which the Uttar Pradesh Board of Madrasa Education Act 2004 was declared unconstitutional. However, in April this year, the Supreme Court stayed the decision of the High Court.
There are three types of madrasas running in the country
During the hearing, NCPCR mentioned three types of madrasas and told how they are running and what is being taught to the children there. NCPCR told the court that three types of madrasas are being run in the country. First are the recognized madrasas which are registered under the Unified District Information System of Board (UDISE). These provide religious education and may also provide formal education but it is not as per the Right to Education (RTE) Act 2009. Second are the non-recognized madrasas, which the government found unfit due to lack of formal education and infrastructure. Third are the unmapped madrasas or those madrasas which never applied to be certified. NCPCR told that such madrasas are common in India, in which most of the children get enrolled.
Madrasas focus on religious education, NCPCR said
NCPCR further said that there is no data on how many unmapped madrasas are there in the country. He said that it is not known about such madrasas what kind of education is being imparted to the children here, so the children studying here will be considered out of school, even if they are being given regular education. Apart from this, neither the children are involved in extracurricular activities here nor there are any social events in them. He said that the focus of madrasas is only on religious education. The teachers who are recruited here also do not meet the standards of Right to Education.
Madrasas unsuitable places for studies, says NCPCR
NCPCR said that the arbitrary manner in which madrasas are functioning is in violation of the Right to Education as well as the Juvenile Justice Act 2015. He said that madrasas are not only unsuitable places for adequate education, but also lack the curriculum and evaluation process prescribed under sections 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 and 29 of the RTE Act.