People's Democracy

In order to tackle the concerted efforts being made by certain groups to try and malign the system of Madrassh education in Bengal, the Left Front has briefly outlined the various aspects of the Madrassa education system of the state in the form of an appeal to the people. Signatories the Appeal include:

Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Jyoti Basu, Anil Biswas, Biman Basu, Ashok Ghosh, Debabrata Bandyopadhyay, Manjukumar Majumdar, Kiranmoy Nanda, Prabodh Sinha, Pratim Chatterjee, Mihir Byne, and Sunil Chaudhuri.

DELINEATING the growth of the Madrassa system of education in Bengal, the Appeal notes how the number of Madrassas has grown in number between 1977 and 2000. There were 92 High Madrassas, 71 Junior Madrassas and 75 Senior Madrassas in 1977. The figures for the year 2000 stand at 229, 175, and 103, respectively, indicating a growth by 137, 104, and 28. The number of teachers and educational employees engaged in the Madrassas, whose salaries and emoluments including retirement benefits are entirely taken care of by the state Left Front government, stood at 6,881 in the year 2000, while the figure was 2,813 in the year 1977.

It is noteworthy that Bengal under the Left Front government, is the only state where Madrassa teachers and employees are paid salaries and retirement benefits as per norms applicable for all other government-run schools. And only in Bengal does one find an autonomous Madrassa Education Council.

The numbers of examinees in various Madrassa examinations, too, have increased emphatically. For 1977, the figures for High Madrassa and Alim stood at 3,433 and 567 respectively. For 2001, the figures were 16,176 and 1,938. Additionally, 267 examinees sat for the D’amil examination of 2001.

The LF government’s budgetary allocation for Madrassa education stands at Rs 115 crore, while the average for 1976-77, was Rs five lakh twenty thousand. The state government also provides for the infrastructural development of the Madrassa education system, and also utilises funds from the DPEP head in this regard. Computer education has also been introduced in their syllabus

The state government, the Appeal notes, does not, as of now, have the precise number of unrecognised schools in either Madrassa education or under the Delhi board. The Left Front government, the Appeal posits, "will announce its decision regarding these institutions as per its clearly enunciated policies in this regard."

The Appeal exhorts the people to stand united in ensuring that all heinous conspiracies and all efforts at creating a divide in this regard fail, and fail in the most abject manner.