Rajasthan: 655 madrassa close down for lack of students

JAIPUR: State education department has closed down 655 madrassa in the state in want of students on Friday. The move came after Rajasthan Madrasa Board submitted a detailed report claiming that of 2,352 registered madrassa, which receive grant and aid from the state, 655 of them have enrolments from just about 0-20, which is not enough to sustain.
Jaipur has the highest number of seminaries, touching a 100, that have faced closure, followed by Tonk which has 50.The government viewed that in the absence of enrolments, running any institute for that matter would amount to underutilization of resources. The decision also says that para-teachers teaching in these closed seminaries will not be paid their salaries. The decision has left about 252 para-teachers jobless.
Justifying the decision, Saeed Ahmed, secretary of Madarsa Board, said, "The decision has been taken due to poor enrolments." The DISE report 2013-14, says that state has over 2,352 madrassa with 1.87 lakh enrolments. However, the enrolment figure has been dwindling in these religious seminaries from the past few years. Here, other than religious teachings, students get to learn Urdu along with other subjects.
Rajasthan Urdu Teachers Association has accused the state of discriminatory attitude towards urdu language. Ameen Kaimkhany, president of the association, while agreeing to the falling number of enrolments in madrassa, said, "How do you expect students to enroll anywhere for that matter where there are no teachers. Most of the religious seminaries are being run without teachers that has been the major reason behind the dwindling enrollments."