Author: Times News Network
Publication: The Times of India
Date: October 16, 2001
The district police of Kutch have
found that many of the teachers imparting Islamic education in the madrasas
which have mushroomed in the border areas of Kutch come from as far as
Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh, Murshidabad in West Bengal and Kishenganj in
Bihar. But this is not a recent phenomenon. Many of these teachers now
speak the local Kutchi dialect fluently and have adapted themselves well
to the difficult climatic conditions in this semi-arid region which goes
without adequate drinking water round the year.
But compare this to the situation
in the government schools where teachers, most of them belonging to other
regions of Gujarat, do not teach because they are unhappy with their posting
in these hostile conditions. "There is a distinct link between the increase
in the number of madrasas and the poor system for mainstream education
in this region", said a senior government official who examined the issue
afresh recently.
The latest count of madrasas in
Kutch district alone is around 323 and at least ten new institutions are
added every year. Most of these madrasas are coming up in the border areas
of Kutch, like Khavda, which are Muslim- dominated. Intelligence agencies
have already alerted the government that the growth of these institutions
is "undesirable", especially in an area bordering Pakistan.
A team of officials, including the
district education officer, district development officer and superintendent
of police recently jointly toured some of these areas to find out the reason
behind the popularity and growth of these organisations. "We found that,
by and large, most of the teachers were an unhappy lot, they themselves
are so demotivated because of their postings that they can be hardly called
upon to wean away people from the madrasas to the government schools",
said one official.
Said the district education officer
Naishadh Makwana..... We have to identify the motivated teachers, preferably
from the Muslim community, to wean the students away from the madrasas."
He said though he felt that the Islamic teaching in madrasas and formal
education in government schools could go hand in hand, the timings often
overlap making it a difficult choice for the parents on where to send their
children. He said Kutch had been included this year in the Netherlands-
sponsored primary education programme and more funds would now be available
to improve the infrastructure.
