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Akhila
Singh
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, August 14
Attempts by
the government to allow students of madrasas
(religious schools) to enroll at a mainstream
university seem to have come to a naught. Jawaharlal
Nehru University (JNU) had, for the first time,
announced in its prospectus that certificates of
selected madrasas would be treated at par with the
regular school leaving (class 12) diplomas starting
from this academic session.
However,
university records show not a single madrasa student
has been able to clear JNU’s entrance examination
for undergraduate courses. The fact that the test
was conducted in English probably might have been
the reason.
Sources close to JNU said the university held a
common entrance test for all students seeking
admission in the BA course, for which madrasa
certificates were also deemed as valid.
JNU is the
country’s first varsity other than Jamia Millia
Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University to have
recognized certificates issued by madrasa for
enrollment in undergraduate courses. The university
prospectus lists 17 madrasas in Uttar Pradesh and
Bihar, whose students can sit for the entrance tests
of undergraduate courses in foreign languages. The
move came less than three years after the Justice
Rajinder Sachar committee report that recommended
“social and economic upliftment” of Muslims in
India.
In the past
students with madrasa certificates used a circuitous
route to study at JNU. They first enrolled in the
BA-I course in Arabic at Jamia Millia Islamia, which
recognises madrasa certificates. They then moved to
JNU for the second year BA course. Besides Arabic
and Persian JNU runs undergraduate courses in other
foreign languages also.
Former JNU
Students Union president Dhananjay Tripathi said:
“Rules need to be changed even if it was a case of
just one student being placed at a disadvantage. The
Sachar panel’s recommendations stated it was crucial
for madrasa students to be brought into mainstream
education”.
However,
with no madrasa student clearing the JNU entrance
test in English for undergraduate courses the
efforts seem wasted. |
