Under the Right to Education (RTE) Act, a progressive piece of legislation adopted by the erstwhile UPA regime, it is the right of all children in the 5-14 age group to be in school. It is therefore not unreasonable for a state government to find out how many children in its jurisdiction do not go to school and be ready with educational infrastructure to accommodate them, should their parents raise the demand.
But the BJP government in Maharashtra has gone about its task in a communally provocative and polarising manner by declaring that madrasas — schools for Islamic religious instruction typically attached to mosques — won’t count as schools if they do not teach subjects such as science, social science, languages, and mathematics that are the staple of scholastic learning.
The point, however, is that a very large number of madrasas across the country are adapting to changing times, and have begun to teach all of the subjects dealt with in an ordinary school. A sensible, practical, approach might have been for the Fadnavis government to announce incentives for all madrasas in Maharashtra to take to this pattern since the state would be looking to build new schools anyway for children not at school.
But the government chose to be abrasive instead and needlessly rubbed a section of society the wrong way. In any event, nothing would be lost if the state authorities first catalogued children who do not go to any kind of educational institution. Usually, this is the consequence of poverty of their parents. It is this category that deserves to be catered to on a priority basis, rather than go chasing after religious schools with a big stick.
We cannot get away from the fact that education imparted by denominational groups is also education, although some of it may be traditional and in need of upgrade. But in keeping with common sense, the task is best left to the community itself, especially since such institutions are not a burden on the state.
There is another dimension to the discussion. Demanding the right to be at school under the RTE Act cannot mean that every child in the relevant age-group must be compulsorily pushed into a school, whether he likes it or not. The education system must have enough flexibility to let children be privately tutored at home or at a non-state institution, including a religious one such as a madrasa, with rules permitting such children to take the school-leaving examination at an appropriate age.
This would be part of a sane approach. Let us recognise straight away that many students with madrasa education have successfully gone on to pursue advanced studies and happy professional careers. The educational directive from Mumbai seems blind to this.
