Uttarakhand Waqf Board to announce NCERT syllabus, dress code in madrasas soon

In an effort to modernise madrasa education in the state, the Uttarakhand Waqf Board has decided to implement the NCERT curriculum as well as a dress code in its madrasas starting in the following academic year.

According to Shadab Shams, the chairman of the Uttarakhand Waqf Board, the board has also decided to welcome children of all faiths into its madrasas. In Uttarakhand, the board manages 103 madrasas.

The board has also decided that its madrasas will teach students general subjects from 8 am to 2 pm daily, just like other schools, and only provide religious instruction to students for an hour from 6:30 am to 7:30 am.

"We will introduce the NCERT syllabus and a dress code on the lines of English medium schools in our madrasas so that students feel on a par with the rest of school going children," Shams said, as per PTI.

According to him, the goal is to



assist madrasa students in integrating into the academic community and preparing them for a better future.

In the meantime, the Waqf board decided to increase the length of the Hafiz-e-Quran programme in its madrasas from four years to ten years so that by the time the course is complete, the students will have completed Class 10 or 12 and be old enough to choose whether they want to continue their religious education or become doctors and engineers, he said.

"Modernisation of madrasa education will also help dispel the doubts often cast on their activities," Shams said.

He added that the board will ask them to give NCERT books to madrasa students free of charge.

He said Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and Minister of Social Welfare and Minority Affairs Chandan Ram Das have pledged to offer the board every assistance possible in its efforts to modernise the madrasas.