Madrasa students to receive modern education under Jamiat Open School

Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind has established 'Jamiat Open School' to impart secondary level education to Madrasa students under National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) framework.

New Delhi: In order to impart secondary level education to Madrasa students in the framework of NIOS, the prominent Muslim body Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind has established 'Jamiat Open School' with a target to reach out to as many as 50 thousand students at the first stage.

Speaking at the inaugural session on Friday, Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind general secretary Maulana Mehmood Madani said: "Every year thousands of young Muslims graduate from various Dar-ul Ulooms (centers of Islamic knowledge), they have a good grounding in these field. However, they are somewhat handicapped in playing their vital role in their community due to ignorance in terms of contemporary secular education or mainstream educational streams."

"Jamiat has opened a Jamiat National Open School with our mission to recreate trained and support Madrasa students enabling them to pursue mainstream education to become effective leaders to deal with diverse challenges faced by Muslim communities," said Maulana Mehmood Madani.

He said today about 100 heads of Madarsa representatives Uttar Pradesh and Delhi gathered and Jamiat's headquarters in New Delhi and were informed about the organization's initiative. Now, they will proceed to Pune for one-month long training for this program.

Madani also said that our elders had opposed the government Madrassas board; time has proved that their concerns were correct. He cited the recent attitude of the Assam government in this regard as an example. He said that we do not accept the government's interference in religious Madrassas, we have chosen our own path for modern education.

Niyaz Farooqui, spokesperson of Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, said that the program is targeted to reach out to 50,000 students at the first stage.

"So far, 100 Madrassas have been selected in which 2000 students will benefit from modern education. Under this, a 20-day training camp for the coordinators and teachers of these Madrassas is going to start in Azam Campus, Pune from tomorrow," added Niyaz Farooqui.