UP Madrasa Teachers Associations to move Supreme Court against HC order
Allahabad HC declared the UP Madrasa Education Act «unconstitutional», the Madrasa teachers associations have decided to challenge the ruling in the Supreme Court following CM Yogi Adityanath's statement that the state government will comply with the court's order.
The teacher associations have also urged an amendment in the act to suit it to the HC's observations regarding the quality of education, etc, instead of doing away with it completely. It has also suggested transfer of madrasas from the minority welfare department to the education department, as was the norm before 1996.
The HC's order has cast a shadow of uncertainty over about 26 lakh students enrolled across various recognised and unrecognised madrasas in the state. The court's order also adds to another recommendation made by a Special Investigation Team to shut down over 8,400 unrecognised madrasas in the state. The UP board recognises 16,513 madrasas out of which 560 receive grants used to give salaries to teachers.
On Saturday, Adityanath, in an interview to a news channel, said his government respects the HC order and will implement it in a phased manner. «We will link the educational system of the state with the common educational system where no discrimination will take place on the basis of caste or religion, and we will provide an education in all these institutes that respects the country's nationality as well as its heroes,» Adityanath said.
He also said that while the government tried to implement a madrasa modernisation scheme, it was
