Madrasah Education System in West BengalMadrasah Education System in West Bengal- An Overview- An Overview

A brief introduction to the Madrasah Education in West Bengal Madrasah education started in West Bengal with the establishment of Calcutta Madrasah in 1780. Since then there have been many organizational restructuring and subsequently West Bengal Board of Madrasah Education has been constituted as an autonomous body through West Bengal Madrasah Education Act, 1994 in the West Bengal State of Legislature. The Board functions with same academic, administrative norms, facilities, status and privileges as enjoyed by other Boards of Education, Councils and similar bodies in the State Government. The principal objective of the Board, besides supervision and control, is to make these institutions as centre of excellence, more student and community friendly so that they are able to participate in a meaningful way. In West Bengal there are two types of Education system. i) School education system , and ii) Madrasah Education system. 

Few institutions are recognized by the Government and completely aided by the Government to support all expenses and some are run and maintained by individuals, community or organizations.

There are two types of Govt.-recognized institutions: (1) The old scheme – Senior Madrasah Education system and (2) The new scheme – High Madrasah Education System.

The curriculum and syllabus have been restructured with view to open access to higher education, employment possibilities and social opportunities.

TOTAL HIGH MADRASAH 512

TOTAL SENIOR MADRASAH 102

GOVT. RECOGNIZED & AIDED MADRASAHS

JUNIOR HIGH MADRASAH

122

HIGH MADRASAH

07

SENIOR MADRASAH

65

RECOGNISED UN-AIDED MADRASAHS

194

RECOGNIZED UN-AIDED MADRASAHS

COMPERATIVE FIGURES OF RECOGNITION AND UPGRADATION

  1947-48 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13Jr. High Madrasah 90 90 110 114 114High Madrasah 7 389 394 395 398Senior Madrasah (upto Alim) 2 102 102 102 102H.S. Madrasah 0 167 172 198 210Fazil Madrasah 0 54 55 55 66Madrasahs with Vocational Stream 0 156 156 183 183

GROWTH OF MADRASAHS (BY TYPE)

  1977-1978 2009-10 2011-12 2012-13  Boys Girls Total Boys Girls Total Boys Girls Total

Student   182781 259772 442553 187474 278728 466202 193308 290554 483862Student under 

Board's Examination

4023     42200     48812     51041

GROWTH OF STUDENTS

HIGH MADRASAH TEACHERS-STUDENTS – PRESENT SCENARIO

NO. OF MADRASAHS

NO. OF SANCTIONED TEACHERS

NO. OF TEACHER

S

VACANT POSTS

NO. OF STUDENTS

AVERAGE NO. OF 

STUDENTS PER 

MADRASAH

TOTAL  NO. OF 

STUDENTS

PERCENTAGE

NO. OF GIRLS

PERCENTAGE

398 7847 6501 1346 389566 979 154411 39.63% 235155 60.37%

NO. OF SANCTION TEACHERS 

(7847)

PRESENT STUDENT STRENGTH    (389566)

PRESENT TEACHERS STRENGTH   

  (6501)

PRESENT STUDENT STRENGTH           (389566)

1:49 1:59

TEACHER-STUDENT RATIO

REASONS FOR DROP-OUT OF CHILDREN FROM THE MADRASAHS

Major reasons for drop-outs of students from the Madrasah system are enumerated below :

 i) Early marriage – Early marriage of  girl students is a major cause for drop-out. Girls are getting married at an 

early age and hence cannot study further. Some girls are forced to discontinue their studies even though they are willing to carry on with their studies. 

 ii) Poor economic condition and faulty perception on benefits of education –  Poor  economic  condition  is 

another major factor. In most of the cases each child is viewed as an additional pair of hands which   can help the family to earn additional resources. Some children go out with their father for helping him in the fields, feeding cattle and some, mostly girls stay back at home to help their mothers with household work or for looking after young siblings. Some even start earning for the family. Some families think that sending children to school is wastage of time and resources and engaging them in work is always a better option. Education,  it  is still perceived, cannot offer enough opportunity to earn money. Therefore, many parents engage their children in bidi binding work, zari work or in brick kiln rather than sending them to school.

iii) Lack of opportunities for higher studies – There are some students who are willing to continue studies after Alim  and  Fazil.  However,  there  are  few  opportunities  for  them  for  their  higher  education.Restrictions  on  girls  -  it  is  observed  that  dropout  of  girls  is  more  than  boys  due  to  socio-economic problems. Certain families impose restriction on adolescent girls from going to schools. Parents prefer girls sitting at home and helping their mother in household work than sending them to study in schools. It was emphasized that social attitude of people needs to change.

 

REASONS FOR DROP-OUT OF CHILDREN FROM THE MADRASAHS contd..

iv) Lack of guidance and compassion from teachers - It is observed that some students who attend school do not get proper guidance and compassion from teachers. This makes them de-motivated and hence they discontinue going to Madrasahs. Some teachers somehow finish their day’s assignment and are in hurry to go back home. They spend less time with the children and is not interested to know whether the student understood the topic or not. 

v) Discrimination by teachers - It has also been observed that some of the teachers of Madrasahs discriminate children between poor and backward class/tribe and with children coming from well-off  families. This makes the children demotivated and they fall back from going to the Madrasahs. 

vi) Lack of accountability among teachers – It is observed that there is no accountability of teachers in Madrasahs. Some teachers do not report to their seniors and are  sometimes unwilling to take classes.  Sense of responsibility is lacking among the teachers and overall there does not exist a healthy teacher-student relationship. Parents too have a negative approach. There is a need to orient and sensitize the teachers before they start teaching and interacting with students. 

 

REASONS FOR DROP-OUT OF CHILDREN FROM THE MADRASAHS Contd..

 Greater percentage of girls than boys leading to more drop-out - It is observed that the ratio of girls in Madrasahs are more than boys. For boys, creating opportunities of earning is of prime importance and in this respect, Madrasah is not perceived as a viable option for creating earning opportunities. However, since girls will get married early, so they go to Madrasahs for education. Perception on institutional education - Some parents have a mindset that children who go away from their homes to study  and work do not want to come back home. Hence they prefer them studying near their home. Initiation into jobs at a tender age - Some educated parents, force their children to acquire skill to become skilled labour at a very early age. After primary education due to lack of opportunities to study further children tend to work as skilled labour. After a while, the young boys get used to earning money and do not show willingness to come back to the school discipline. Young girls are compelled to stay at home and do household work.

  REASONs of drop-out SOLUTION

1Lack of commitment of the teachers and attachment with students

More number of quality teachers necessary, Training of teachers

2No accountability on part of the teachers Introduction of a system to ensure

accountability of teachers

3Students are not sure about their career plans beyond eighth standard

Motivation of students – and provide a positive outlook, Facilitate visioning among the students

4Parents are not interested to know about educational progress of their children

Involvement of parents and parents teach interactive session to be conducted.

5Infrastructure is there but these are not maintained and utilized

Optimum utilization of existing infrastructure, Installation of Modern equipment

6Lack of attachments of the students with the school

Sports / physical activities / social utility-based programmes

7The examples of well performing Madrasahs are never highlighted as examples to most of the institutions

Identification of Best practices and wide dissemination

8There is no record for absenteeism of the students and the reason thereof

Proper maintenance of record of attendance and regular monitoring

9Poor attendance of students immediately before and during examination

Streamlining of evaluation procedure instead of too many and repetitive evaluations

10No pro-active role of teachers in educating students.

Quality education by Training, evaluation and integration of teachers.

SOME SUGGESTIONS TO REDUCE THE NO. OF DROP-OUTS

  REASONs of drop-out SOLUTION

11

The classroom teaching is different from the text book materials and students cannot follow afterwards which result in poor performance of the students in the examination

Coordination between text book materials and classroom teaching

12Students are de-motivated and not aware of the incentives available

Orientation and sensitization of the students on the available incentives

13When the weak students are promoted to higher class in automatic process, it becomes difficult for them to follow

Introduction of Bridge course for weak students

14

The syllabus is not at par with other boards as result of which if the students takes admission in other schools, it becomes difficult for them to follow

Modernization and upgradation of syllabus

15Without separate common room for the girls, it becomes difficult for them to come to the schools

Separate common room for girls

16

In most of the cases, toilets are not functional and there is no provision for running water. This creates particular problems for the girls who cannot go to the toilets during school hours

Toilets with running water separately for boys and girls

17The teaching methods are old fashioned and repetitive which many students find boring and fails to ignite curiosity in them

Introduction of Audio-visual teaching methods

18

Girls when they gets admission in high Madrasah have to travel long distance, even five kilometers to go those schools. This is not acceptable to the parents of these girls

Hostel facility for students, particularly for the girls.

19No monitoring system in Madrasah as a result of which quality of the schools is not monitored

Dedicated inspectors for Madrasah

20

In many cases teachers are not appointed locally. As a result the teachers have to travel on an average for 2-4 hours to come to school. The teachers therefore are always in a hurry to go back home. They cannot concentrate whole heartedly for teaching the students.

Appointment of teachers locally so that teachers do not have to travel for long hours every day and concentrate more on teaching

  REASONs of drop-out SOLUTION21

The students are at a loss as to their career plans after they pass out eighth standard

Training of students – vocational training linkage forward linkage

22

In some schools the number of students are much more than the teachers, while in other schools there are not enough students compared to the number of teachers

Proper teacher-student ratio so that there is not much discrepancy

23There is no reward system to acknowledge the special efforts put in by meritorious students

Introduction of scholarship for the meritorious students

24 Weak students stay away from school Counseling cell for weak students

25

Teachers take the classes in an uninterrupted manner without any gap between classes and in many cases they become stressed out.

Gaps between periods so that the teachers regain their energy before taking a fresh class

26The teaching method is conventional and there is no provision for recapitulation of the lessons they have learnt over months.

Provision for quiz and recapitulation classes

27

It becomes difficult to send children to schools by the mothers who are working, particularly in the 100 days’ work scheme because the older children have to take the responsibility to look after the smaller children

Introduction of crèche

28The schools do not have boundary walls and it becomes unsafe for the students, particularly for the girl students

Building of boundary walls around Madrasah

29The toilets in schools are very dirty and this acts as a deterrent for the students

Appointment of cleaning persons for the toilets through MGNREGS

30

The evaluation system is very stringent at times and the student gets very low marks. This causes major demotivation for the students

Proper motivation of the students through giving them more marks and slightly lenient answer script evaluation.

31 Demotivated students seen in Madrasahs Introduction of spoken English classes