HRD Ministry panel pitches for national madarsa board

New Delhi : Members of the HRD Ministry's NMCME have pitched for capturing details of unregistered madarsas in the country and setting up a national-level madarsa board with a suitable system for accreditation to ensure their academic standards. In a recent meeting of the National Monitoring Committee for Minorities' Education (NCME), panel member Afzar Shamsi recommended that the data of unregistered madarsas be captured. "There are two types of madarsas, one which are 'registered' which are roughly 20 per cent and the other one are 'unregistered' which are around 80 per cent.  

All the data which the government is having is based on registered madarsas," the minutes of the meeting quoted Shamsi as saying. "There is a need to capture the details of the unregistered madarsas and bring them within the ambit of registration so that a clear picture is available," he said. Another member Jamshid Khan said, "Madarsa boards in some states are defunct. While some states have these boards, some like Maharashtra do not have any madarsa board". "It is suggested that there should be an all-India level madarsa board with suitable system for accreditation to ensure academic standards," he said.