Madrassah reforms making no headway

A press report points out that the madrassah reform programme the Musharraf government had launched back in 2002 is getting nowhere. Far from taking meaningful steps in that direction, the government has not even started a proper registration campaign.
The report points out that so far, only 507 madrassahs have been registered with the Federal Ministry of Education whereas Wafaqul Madaris Al Arabia, belonging to the Deoband school of thought, alone runs 12,000 seminaries that boast three million strong student enrolment. Some 6,000 Brelvi seminaries are catering to the needs of 130,000 students.
The Jamaat-i-Isami-run Rabata-ul Madaris Al Islamia has about 100,000 students in its 700 madrassahs. The Shia community managed Wafaqul Madaris Ashia operates 500 madrassahs for 10,000 students. The government decided to reorganise these schools because of indications that some of them promoted extremism. The reform programme was aimed at modernisation of the curriculum through the introduction, alongside religious education, of computer literacy, science, social studies and English.
This was to broaden the students' horizons and enable them to enter mainstream education and benefit from better employment opportunities. The government also sought to subject the religious schools to audit, to keep track of their financial resources, which came from local businessmen, religious charities and Pakistanis abroad and, in some instances, from other Muslim countries. No one with honest intentions could find fault with this programme. Yet it has remained largely unimplemented because of lack of will on part of the government.
Considering that the government faces a serious cash crunch, one would think what has kept it from implementing the plan is the paucity of funds. That, though, is not the reason. Press reports, in fact, point out that the Education Ministry received substantial foreign assistance for the purpose, but it has remained largely unutilised.
The Ittihad-i-Tanzeemat-i-Madaris Pakistan (ITMP) spokesman, Qari Haneef, who is also a member of a special committee of the PPP government set up to monitor the project progress, blames the government for lack of interest. According to him, the PPP government did give ITMP a working paper for discussion on how the reform process should proceed, but there has been no follow-up. Important issues such as whether there should be a madrassah regulatory authority and upgradation of the madrassahs to the level of regular educational institutions await attention.
Those running these schools have also been resistant to the idea of audit. These issues could be sorted out had the government showed the necessary resolve. The madrassah owners, of course, are happy to go on doing things their way. This is not right. The government must put its act together and take the necessary steps to reform madrassah education so that their students, an overwhelming majority of them from impoverished families, can become productive members of society.