Reforming Madrassah Education BY Hassan Qadri

Recently, according to media reports the Religious Minister Sardar Muhammad Yousuf vowed to correct the “flaws” of Madrassah Education through establishing an Islamic Education Commission on the lines of the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan. Of course such a discourse is the need of the hour and cannot be appreciated above.

                                     Here it what I suggested a while back in one of my articles to a newspaper.  

Our country is among the educationally under-developed countries, with a literacy rate of only 46%. On the other hand extremism, Sectarianism and other such nuisances are an ever increasing threat to us.

                      A possible solution to maintain or increase our literacy rate as well as to get rid of the plague of sectarianism is to strengthen and support our religious seminaries or ‘MADARIS’. There are thousands of such institutions of which only 288 are under the “Madrassa reforms project”.  It is evident that this reformation has not been enough as such institutions are still lagging far behind in nearly every aspect of the modern age. Being a former student of such an institution I have some less than savory experiences in these “forts of knowledge” and in light of my such experiences I have a few suggestions to make, if implemented could have a positive effect on these Madaris on the one hand and should boost our educational system on the other.

1.      Making the registration of such an institution compulsory and recognizing their stature as “proper” educational institutions.

2.      These seminaries should be converted into semi-government institutions. Thus, a mere exhibit of government control should prohibit any adventurous activities, as past experience depicts.

3.      Existing 5 major bodies for controlling such schools namely Wafaq-ul-madaris, Tanzeem-ul-madaris etc should be strengthened and should be provided with constitutional protection.

4.      Various government organized events, competitions should include participants from Madrassas as well.

5.      Such reforms should be brought in all the Madaris without any discrimination.

In this way not only our Literacy rate could get a considerable boost but also our beloved country could be purified from the disgrace of fundamentalism, extremism and sectarianism.