Madrassas teach engg, mgmt, IT: Will Maha govt please note?

ALIGARH: A day after the Maharashtra government declared that children attending madrassas were “out-of-school”, many in the Muslim community pointed to thousands of madrassas in the country that have quietly made changes, incorporating engineering and management studies in their curricula. There are madrassas that teach computer application, engineering, communication, refrigeration and air-conditioning, leather/footwear technology, pharmacy, optical science and even journalism.
Rashid Shaz, director of the Bridge Course at Aligarh Muslim University that enables students from madrassas to make the transition to university education, said, “Madrassas are incorporating colleges of management and engineering, for instance, in their fold.”
Traditionally, madrassas offer lessons in matters of theological importance, stressing subjects like mantiq (logic), fiqh (jurisprudence), tasawwuf (spiritualism), hadith (traditions laid down by Prophet Mohammed).
At the Jamia Islamia Ishaatul Uloom, Akkalkuwa, Maharashtra, students are offered courses in modern medicine, engineering and pharmacy. The Jamiatul Hidaya madrassa in Jaipur, on the other hand, teaches students computer application, engineering, management, communication and refrigeration.
The Jamiatul Falah in Azamgarh is a mini-industrial training institute and public hospital. The education also focuses on personality development and includes economics, political science and home science in the curriculum. This, alongside the Islamic education.
In modern madrassas, students are trained to be a range of things, besides maulvis (theologians), muezzins (those who recite five-time prayers daily), khateebs (preachers), imams (those who lead prayers) and katibs (calligraphers).
Delhi-based lawyer and activist Shehzad Poonawala is set to petition the National Commission for Minorities against the decision of the Maharashtra government to declare madrassas “not schools”. He says that he is also mulling over approaching the Bombay High Court.
“Madrassas want government aid, they are targets of communalism. Despite all the challenges, madrassas have incorporated modern learning along with Islamic training. At the Zahoor-Ul-Islam madrassa in Panipat, Hindus and Muslims, girls and boys study secular curricula,” Poonawala said.
Saud Alam Qasmi of the department of theology of Aligarh Muslim University said, “Madrassas have incorporated new courses of technical and professional importance. What they need is good, trained teachers.”
Mohd Abdullah, 21, who schooled at a madrassa and is all set to join a hotel management course at Jamia Milia Islamia, New Delhi, said his was a conservative madrassa. Yet, he was taught mathematics and science, and with the Bridge Course in AMU, he now feels equipped for a regular university. He added that while the bridge course he attended only taught arts and social science subjects, it will now also have science subjects.
Mohd Osama of the Tameer-e-Millat in Aligarh said, “These days we have women teaching the younger students. That was not the case earlier. We also run a play school. There are online classes for the kids when the teacher is away. It’s true, things are changing.”