By Asad Rizvi 

The future of madrassa-going students is at stake in Uttar Pradesh. In the past five years, nearly 20,618 teachers imparting modern subjects to madrassas didn’t get salaries or honoraria.

These teachers are hired on a contractual basis to teach modern subjects like English, Hindi, Mathematics, Science, and Social Sciences to nearly one million students in 7,391 madrassas.

In the past five years, these contractual graduates and post-graduate teachers have gotten a salary for only 10 months. Now the state government is reportedly moving one step forward to ‘harass’ them by not renewing their contract this year.

Teachers’ Precarious State

Not receiving the promised honorarium and the lack of alternative sources of income have pushed some of these teachers into precarious situations, say people in the know. Some have started quitting teaching work and are looking for other work for their livelihood. Several are driving battery rickshaws or vending to manage household expenditures, as has been reported in the media.

The Union government’s apathy toward madrassa teachers would deprive almost 10 lakh students of modern education. This will not only throw these minority students out of modern education but also hit their futures adversely.

Mainly, most of these madrassa students come from the marginalised sections of the Muslim community. The Muslim population is around four crore in UP, which comprises nearly 20% of the state’s population.

These madrassa teachers were appointed on contract under the SPQEM (Scheme for Providing Quality Education in Madrasas) introduced by the Manmohan Singh-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. The objective was to modernise the education system in religious schools in 2009.

Talking about the role of madrassas, Syed Hussain Afsar, editor of an Urdu daily, said that these madrassas played a significant role in the freedom struggle, but unfortunately, now the government is trying to destroy the Islamic seminary.

Afsar went on to say that this was not merely an issue of teachers’ salaries, but also of the future of millions of marginalised students who don’t have enough resources to attend regular schools…

This story was originally published in newsclick.in. Read the full story here