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| India-Pakistan |
| Unfolding madressah challenge |
| 2017-01-01 |
| [DAWN] THE state’s lukewarm efforts to take up the counter-extremism fight are compounding the madressah challenge. It neither realises the scale of the challenge, nor has any clue about the problematic contours of these institutions of religious education. It perceives madressahs as a security challenge and wants to respond through curriculum reforms. When state institutions fail to understand the nature of a challenge, they tend to propose old, traditional solutions. The same is happening in the case of madressahs. Introduce English language, mathematics and computers in madressah curriculums and that will transform the institutions. This is what the interior and religious affairs ministries recently proposed. A review of initiatives taken under the National Action Plan to reform madressahs indicates how the state is dealing with the issue. Those spearheading NAP attached priority to regulating madressahs and gave the task to the federal interior ministry. Initially, the interior minister formed two committees for madressah regulation under his supervision. He also assigned madressah leadership the task of preparing a counter-narrative that could alienate the murderous Moslems. |
| Posted by:Fred |