New Delhi: The Union Minority Affairs Ministry has invited expressions of interest from consulting agencies for conducting a study on strengthening and modernising of madarsas, an official statement said.
The tender, floated on October 15, says the ministry invites "conducting study and preparation of detailed concept note on strengthening/modernisation of madarsas" and the last date of submitting the tender is November 2.
The Ministry statement said that education is an area of concern for the Muslim community, and it is understood that a large number of children from the community in India may be attending madarsas for education, but that it has been observed, over a period of time, that the education being imparted there does not follow the formal curriculum and does not have sufficient infrastructure and qualified teachers.
Noting that the National Education Policy 2020 recognises that minorities are relatively under-represented in school education as well as higher education, it said that policy acknowledges the importance of interventions to promote education of children belonging to all minority communities, and particularly those communities that are educationally under-represented.
It envisages that separate strategies will be formulated for focused attention on reducing the social category gaps in school education which, inter alia, include the alternative forms of schools to be encouraged to preserve their traditions or alternative pedagogical styles, the Ministry said.