Wait for UP madrasa reforms report continues amid modernisation push

The wait for the recommendations of a key Uttar Pradesh government panel on madrasa reforms and modernisation has stretched for more than a year, delaying proposed changes to the state's madrasa education framework.

The recommendations of the six-member committee are expected to form the basis for amendments to the Uttar Pradesh Madrasa Education Board Act, 2004, and the Uttar Pradesh Non-Government Arabic and Persian Madarsa Recognition, Administration and Service Rules, 2016.

Although the state government has maintained that the report will be submitted "very soon", no definite timeline has been announced.


The committee, headed by the Director of the Minority Welfare Department, was constituted on May 30 last year and was initially asked to submit its report by June 30.

Its tenure was later extended by three months till August 2025 in view of the scope of the exercise. Nearly 10 months after the extended deadline, the report is still awaited.

Minister of State for Minority Welfare Danish Azad Ansari told PTI that the committee's report would be ready "very soon", but did not specify a date.

He said the committee would meet on Monday to finalise the report and deliberate on related issues.

Responding to a question on the delay, Ansari said the exercise was extensive and required more time.

"The committee's recommendations will play an important role in determining how madrasas function in the future. We expect them to make a significant contribution towards the modernisation and upgradation of madrasa education," he said.

With the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections only months away, the delay in the report has disappointed organisations representing madrasa teachers, who say it has created uncertainty over the future of aided madrasas.

Diwan Sahab Zaman Khan, general secretary of the Teachers Association Madaris Arabia Uttar Pradesh, said it was disappointing that the report had not yet been made public.

"The future of all government-aided madrasas depends on these recommendations. With the Assembly elections approaching, there is still uncertainty over when the report will be submitted and implemented," he said.

Khan said there had been speculation last week that the report would be placed before the state Cabinet, but that did not happen.

He urged the government to make the recommendations public at the earliest and implement them without delay. He also expressed hope that the committee would address shortcomings in the 2016 service rules.

According to Khan, the 2016 rules did not provide clear guidelines on issues such as appointment, suspension, dismissal, resignation and voluntary retirement of teachers in aided madrasas, leaving these matters to the respective management committees.

He said only about half of the state's 561 aided madrasas had framed such rules and obtained approval from the Uttar Pradesh Madrasa Education Board, while the remaining institutions still lacked a clear regulatory framework.

Khan added that if the committee recommends introducing more modern subjects in madrasas, it should also recommend recruitment of qualified teachers for those subjects.

Senior executive member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, Maulana Khalid Rashid Farangi Mahali, said the recommendations should have been submitted on time to strengthen the madrasa education system.

"Even now, there is time. The committee should submit its report at the earliest and its recommendations should be implemented immediately," he said.

On modern education in madrasas, Farangi Mahali said the Dars-e-Nizami curriculum, prepared around 300 years ago by Allama Nizamuddin Firangi Mahali, already included subjects such as science, social science, mathematics and philosophy.

He said the claim that madrasas impart only religious education was "incorrect" and often politically motivated.

Officials in the Minority Welfare Department said the committee has been tasked with recommending revisions to the curriculum for Classes 9 to 12 in aided madrasas, besides suggesting amendments to the existing legal and regulatory framework.

The panel is also expected to recommend policies on teacher recruitment, suspension, dismissal and transfer, rationalisation of teachers based on student-teacher ratios, identification of subject-wise qualifications of existing teachers, bridge courses and training to enable them to teach modern subjects, and fresh criteria for recognition of madrasas.

According to official data, Uttar Pradesh has around 25,000 madrasas, of which about 13,000 are recognised by the Uttar Pradesh Madrasa Education Board. Of these, 561 receive government grants, while the remaining institutions operate without government aid.