Education of minorities

Children belonging to Minorities
Religious Minorities
The survey of out of school children conducted by SRI-IMRB in 2005 has indicated that the proportion of out of school children is the highest in the Muslim community (9.97%). The Sachar Committee report has also highlighted several dimensions of the lower educational status of Muslim children. The Sachar Committee report and other data stress the fact that the educational status of Muslims varies across the country and a differentiated approach would be necessary based on educational backwardness.

The Ministry of Minority Affairs has identified the 103 districts as minority concentration districts, where the population of religious minorities exceeds 25%. These include districts with different religious minorities including Hindus, Sikhs, Christians etc. Under
the Prime Minister’s new 15 Point Programme, the targets, allocations and performance of SSA in these districts would be monitored. Of the various religious minorities, Muslims are the most educationally backward.

SSA has undertaken sensitization of States and UTs on the issue of providing a special focus in identified Muslim concentration districts. Additional resources have been provided to these districts for recruitment of teachers, construction of school buildings
and classrooms. The strategy of providing AIE grants to Maktabs / Madarsas for introducing / strengthening the teaching of general subjects for children who are attending Maktabs / Madarsas, but not going to regular schools is being followed in several States.

Ensuring that adequately provided primary and upper primary schools are available in all minority concentration areas. It is crucial to ensure that upper primary schools are located close to Muslim habitations to ensure that adolescent Muslim girls can continue their education.

Social mobilisation to promote the demand for education, especially for older girls. This will require a special effort from teachers, educational administrators and programme functionaries to work with parents, religious leaders, panchayat representatives etc. to overcome barriers due to social and cultural traditions.

Religious minorities are usually not included in incentive programmes like scholarships. Children of religious minorities, especially Muslims may be provided scholarships at least at the upper primary stage in identified educationally backward districts.

Urdu medium schools need to be set up wherever required, based on demand and the local language pattern of the minority community. In other Muslim concentration areas, the teaching of Urdu as a subject may be encouraged, wherever there is a demand.

The focus of work should be on ensuring that Muslim children attend regular schools. The strategy of providing grants to Maktabs / Madarsas should not be the dominant strategy for ensuring universal participation of Muslim children. Wherever possible, Maktabs / Madarsas could serve as institutions for providing bridge education for mainstreaming of children into regular schools.

Older children especially girls in the 9+ age group who have not been to school and cannot be mainstreamed easily, could also be encouraged to join centres to run for at least 4 hours in the premises of Maktabs / Madarsas in the forenoon / afternoon, before or after the religious instruction.

KGBVs need to be located within Muslim dominated areas with the option of studying in Urdu medium, if necessary.

Additional hostels for boys and girls need to be set up in minority dominated areas covering the upper primary of education stage.

Linguistic Minorities
The basic principle of providing education in the mother tongue of the child is an important issue in most of the inter-state border areas and places with a concentration of migrants with a different language background. For Muslims, the issue of Urdu medium needs attention in some States. For tribal groups residing in remote areas, who speak a language very different from the medium of instruction in schools, a strategy of transitional bilingual / multilingual education could be implemented

In several States / UTs work relating to development of textbooks and other teaching learning materials and training modules is highly delayed or, sometimes not taken up at all for the minority languages. Under SSA, it should be ensured that curriculum and textbook development, TLM development and training programmes are held regularly for all languages used as medium of instruction in a particular State / UT.

Additional resource persons with a particular language background could be provided in identified clusters / blocks or a group of clusters/ blocks to provide academic support to schools with a different medium of instruction.

Education of minorities : Government Interventions

The National Commission for Minority Educational Institution  Act, 2004 (As amended upto date)
NCMEI (Financial and Administrative Powers) Rules 2005 (Hindi)
NCMEI (Annual Report) Rules, 2005 - 2005 (23-09-2005), (26-03-2007), Hindi : (23-09-2005) (26-03-2007)
NCMEI (Annual Statement of Accounts) Rules, 2006  (Hindi)
NCMEI (Salaries and Allowances and Conditions of Service of Chairperson and other Members) Rules, 2006 (Hindi)
NCMEI (Procedure for Appeal) Rules, 2006   (14-09-2006), (26-03-2007), Hindi : (14-09-2006) (26-03-2006)
ANCMEI (Annual Statement of Accounts), Rules, 2006 (Hindi)

Minority Education