Madrasa teachers are now being trained to impart education in mainstream formal subjects like Hindi, English, Marathi, maths, science, computers and other regional languages, Union Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said on Saturday.
Mr. Naqvi also said the school dropout rate among girl students from minority communities has plunged to 35 per cent now from 70 per cent in 2014. Naqvi was addressing the valedictory session of madrasa teachers training programme at Anjuman-e-Islam here.
The programme was organised by the ministry. The training was provided by Anjuman-e-Islam.
"Besides religious teaching, Urdu, Arabic and other languages, madrasa teachers are also being provided trainingfor mainstream formal education like Hindi, English, maths,science, computer etc," a statement quoted Mr. Naqvi as saying.
The ministry had launched a campaign around four years ago to connect madrasas with mainstream formal education system, he said. "A large number of madrasa teachers have been trained in mainstream education. It is heartening that these teachers include a large number of female teachers," the minister said.
Mr. Naqvi said over 300 teachers have been trained under the programme in the first six months of the second term of the Narendra Modi government.
Reputed institutions such as IITs, Aligarh Muslim University, Jamia Millia Islamia, Jamia Hamdard, Anjuman-e-Islam and others are training teachers under the programme, he added.
Mr. Naqvi said his ministry has been working on "war footing" to provide affordable, accessible, quality education to six notified minority communities, namely Jain, Parsi,Buddhist, Christian, Sikh and Muslim. He added the government has connected "thousands" of madrasas and other educational institutions belonging to thecommunities with "3Ts - teacher, tiffin and toilet".
Mr. Naqvi said some 20 lakh students from the six communities have been given pre-matric, post-matric, merit-cum-means and other scholarships in the first six months of the Modi government in its second innings.
Mr. Naqvi said basic infrastructure was being constructed on large scale under 'Pradhan Mantri Jan Vikas Karykram' to ensure educational empowerment of minorities, especially girls.
Under the 'Pradhan Mantri Jan Vikas Karykram', 104 common service centres have been approved across the country in first six months of the second term of the NDA government,he added.
"These centres will work as a single-window system to provide information regarding Central government schemes as well as to assist the needy in getting benefits of thesewelfare schemes," Mr. Naqvi said.
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