State-level panel to examine scope of recognising Khariji Madrasahs across Bengal: Mamata
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Monday that her government is constituting a state-level high power committee for examining the possibilities of recognising the Khariji Madrasahs across the state.
“The committee comprising educationists, experts, state government officials and representatives from the Muslim community will do a survey and submit a report within six months. On the basis of that, we will consider granting registration to these madrasahs so that students studying in them can avail facilities of the state government schemes like Kanyashree and scholarship facilities like Aikyashree,” Banerjee said during the question-answer session of the state Assembly. Around five lakh students are associated with these Khariji Madrasahs.
Khariji Madrasahs are independent Islamic educational institutions, not affiliated with the West Bengal Board of Madrasah Education (WBBME). Unlike government-aided madrasahs, they do not receive financial assistance from the government and operate with their own curriculum and teaching methodologies and degrees as well (Hafiz, Qari and others). They are funded by religious donations from individuals or the Muslim community.
Banerjee added that the state government is also working on recognising the unaided madrasahs across the state with 235 such institutions with its teachers receiving honorarium from the state. “There are still 700 such unaided madrasahs that are awaiting recognition. We are trying our best that those madrasahs meeting the norms and criteria for recognition are given the same immediately and the process is very much on,” she added.
Banerjee said her government is committed to further promote sub-regional languages like Santhali, Rajbanshi, Nepali etc. in the schools. Therefore, it has been decided that a dedicated branch of Sub-Regional Languages (including Santhali) will be set up in the School Education Department for the promotion of all the sub-regional languages in schools.
“844 sanctioned posts of Santhali teachers will be filled up shortly and at least one Santhali medium along with English section secondary/higher secondary school with hostel facility, will be set in each block of Jhargram district,” she added.
She reiterated that the budget for the Minority Affairs department has gone up from Rs 472 crore in the year 2010-11 to Rs 4,233 crore in 2023-24 which speaks of the thrust that her government has assigned for the development of minority education.
Every year, 45 lakh students are getting benefits of the Aikyashree scholarship with an average spending of Rs 1,100 crore. “Bengal is the first in the country when it comes to granting minority scholarships. 14 madrasahs are being converted to English medium,” she added.
