MHRD’s education schemes for the Muslim Minority | India Education Review

The National Monitoring Committee on Minority Education (NMCME) was constituted in 2004 to look into all aspects of education for the minorities and suggest ways and means to improve the conditions for educational empowerment of minorities. An Expert Committee of the NMCME was constituted to give inputs for revising the programme of modernization of Madrasas. It suggested that Madrasas be provided a linkage with the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) to provide certification of academic levels, linkages with vocational education, improving the quality of education in modern subjects, introduce teacher training, enhancement of teacher salaries, strengthening of State Madrasas Boards and raising awareness about education programmes for the Muslim Community.

Ministry of Human Resource Development is implementing two schemes in this regard. The first is the Scheme for Providing Quality Education in Madrasas (SPQEM) and second is the Infrastructure Development in Minority Institutions (IDMI). SPQEM seeks to bring about a qualitative improvement in Madrasas to enable Muslim children to attain standards of the national education system in formal education subjects. IDMI facilitates education of minorities by augmenting and strengthening school infrastructure in minority institutions in order to expand facilities for formal education to children of minority community.

During 2009-10 and 2010-11, 7024 Madrasas under SPQEM and 146 institutions under IDMI have been provided financial assistance. In addition to this, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) supports Madrasas/ Makhtabs in order to provide a regular curriculum to children who are not attending regular schools. Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) Scheme aims at setting up schools for girls belonging to SC, ST, OBC, Muslim minority communities etc. 492 KGBV have already been sanctioned in blocks having over 20% Muslim population.