(The Telegraph
December 22, 2006)
Editorial
THINK AGAIN
The Sachar committee’s “grave concern” about the educational status of Indian Muslims is prompted entirely by integrative, rather than divisive, principles. It is, therefore, ironic (and ominous) that Muslim members of parliament and some NGOs want the ministry of human resource development to create exclusive schools for Muslim children in Muslim-dominated areas. This is certainly not what the Sachar committee report has recommended anywhere, and is actually inimical to the spirit of it. Besides, as the report amply documents, this is not what most Muslims want. One of the myths about the ‘minority mindset’ which the report breaks is that most Muslim parents want to send their children to madrassahs or exclusively Muslim, Urdu-medium schools where the children would receive a traditional, religion-driven education. There is a growing number of urban and rural Muslims who want to send their sons and daughters to ‘mainstream’ schools so that they are adequately equipped to enter and prosper in ‘mainstream’ Indian professional life. The report reveals that only about four per cent of Muslim children actually receive a madrassah education, and there too it is often the case that such an education only supplements the one provided by a secular school.
It is important for Indian schools, especially the government or government-aided ones, to provide a range of choices which Muslim students could avail themselves of. Properly trained Urdu teachers should certainly be an important priority here, as should be a whole set of conditions that a substantial number of Muslim parents usually look for when sending their girls to school. This includes trained female teachers and, in some cases, girls’ hostels. In all this, segregation or communal exclusivity is usually the last thing on their minds. Hence, politicians and certain social workers should be careful not to misrepresent the communities they want to serve.
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