Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The nation needs to vigilantly regulate its educational infrastructure and introduce drastic reforms especially in madrassas (religious seminaries) to make them compatible with modern age.

According to various sections of the society, like the rest of the education system, there is an extensive need to monitor the staff, funding, financial dealings, curriculum and students enrolled in madrassamadrassas. According to some estimates, although there are some 35,000 madrassas operating in the country yet there is no record of the registered and unregistered madrassas.

The rough figures collected by the Interior Ministry states that around 30 million students study in 18,000 madrassas in the country that are being run under Ittehad Tanzeematul Madaris (ITM), a body of religious seminaries representing five major schools of thought.

After abortive attempts to bring Madrassas under regulation during the Musharraf and PPP regimes, the National Action Plan (NAP) specifically requires that madrassas to be regularised and reformed. The long-standing issue of madrassa reforms needs an effort and a greater political will.

Interior Minister Chaudhary Nisar Ali Khan has reiterated that the federal government has almost reached an agreement with the five major madrassa networks in the country to document and regulate religious schools.

Pakistan Madaris Education Board Chairman Dr Aamir Tauseen said that 634 madrassas have been affiliated with the board in the last six months so far. The process of madarassas affiliation has started after a period of 15 years, he added.

Consensus over the NAP has made it easy for the PML-N government to regulate and reform madrassa networks in the country.

Religious scholar and visiting lecturer at National University of Science and Technology (NUST), Hafiz Muhammad Asim, said that being an important point of the 20-point NAP on counter terrorism, madrassa reforms have become need of the hour.

According to an official document, strict action will be taken against people found involved in promoting hatred, extremism, sectarianism and intolerance through literature, newspapers and magazines. The government will ensure registration and regulation of religious seminaries, it added.

A religious scholar and Peshawar High Court Advocate Muhammad Tayyab said that to enable seminary students to become part of mainstream education, reforms are needed in shape of introducing new trends in curriculum, reorientation of teachers, equipping the students with knowledge of other disciplines, incorporate new researches and update curriculum about the challenges being faced by Muslim world. There should be proper entry test on the pattern of medical and engineering institutions especially for those who want to get specialisation in the study of Islam or religion, he added.

Tayyab said madrassa should focus on teaching love and tolerance and emphasise over the importance of respecting other faiths and those who differ in approach.