Some reforms are already underway. Here are other suggestions.
1. Establish federal madrassa board.
2. Minister for madrassa affairs.
3. Educational and Recreational trip programmes.
4. Three to six month courses in affiliation with NCA (National College of Arts) in different trades.
5. Introduction of NCC.
6. Appointment of Physical Education Teacher and start of sports activities.
At independence in 1947, there were only 137 madrassas (seminaries) in Pakistan. By 1956 the number had almost doubled. Under Pakistan’s first military ruler,
Ayub Khan, an
Auqaf Department was created to regulate shrines and madrassas so as to bring them and their funding under state control. Ayub also proposed a series of reforms that called for introducing the same primary school education syllabus for madrassas as that provided in government schools.
These reforms were rejected by all the religious parties and thus failed to be implemented
Since then, no genuine attempt has been made by any government to bring Madrassas under govt. control Today there are between 40-50 thousand Madrassas in Pakistan (most of them unregistered). As per SPDC report (2003) ,
70 % of Madrassas are run by Deobandi sect (the hardliners) affiliated with
Wafaq-ul-Madaris Al-Arabia (one of the five madrassah boards in Pakistan) despite the fact that Deobandis make up less than 10 % of Pakistan's (total)population. There is no uniform curriculum or set of teachings across these five types of madrassa. While officially there is a standard madrassa curriculum known as the Dars-e-Nizami each type of madrassa follows its own exclusive texts with their specific and sectarian interpretations of Islamic teachings.
These Madrassas are not under the control of govt. and they receive heavy foreign funding, They are independent and they don't have to rely on govt. for anything .
Article 20 (concerning Fundamental Rights) of Pakistan's constitution states :
(b) Every religious denomination and every sect thereof shall have the right to establish, maintain and manage its religious institutions.
Without amending the constitution, it is almost impossible for the government to bring Madrassas under "effective" control of the state ... And even a "talk" of amending any Islamic provision of the constitution draws a huge public outrage in Pakistan . (As we saw during Musharraf's era) ..
We are stuck in a bad situation, esp.
when 82% of those belonging to Deobandi madrassas see the Taliban as a model for Islamizing Pakistan as per survey (Ali, 2010)... And more than 90% of those studying in Shia Madrassahs see Iran as their role model.
Research done by the Pakistan based Social Policy and Development Center (SPDC) revealed that only 6% of madrassa students cite religious reasons for attending madrassas,
while 89% cited economic reasons (The State of education Report, 2002-03, SPDC, 2003, p.161).
The government can increase its Education budget and provide financial aid to these students and encourage them to join public schools instead ..
