Bilariyaganj, Azamgarh: Breaking the stereotypes
associated with madrassas, a 50-year-old Islamic seminary
here teaches subjects like personality development and home science,
runs an elaborate teacher training programme, has a higher girl
enrolment ratio and has students who are no less active on social
networking websites than their counterparts in the metros.
Welcome to Jamiatul Falah, a madrassa in Bilariyaganj
town of Uttar Pradesh’s Azamgarh district that has kept pace with modern
education. The 4,300 students who come here from across the country are
taught subjects like personality development, economics, political
science and home science – subjects which are rarely taught in Islamic
institutions.
Jamiatul Falah, which means University of Eternal
Success, also started a mini Industrial Training Institute (ITI) and a
public hospital earlier this year. The institution now wants to start
paramedical courses for students.
“Now the madrassa people across the country recognise
that there is a need to train teachers because they play a key role in
any educational system,” Falah manager Mohammad Tahir Madani told IANS.
“The modern subjects are helpful to understand the
religious commandments and create confidence among our students,” he
said.
“If our students don’t know other languages then they
won’t know other cultures. Nowadays if they don’t know English, they may
feel an inferiority complex,” he explained.
More than 50 per cent of the students in the higher
classes of the institution are comfortable with the Internet and most
have a Facebook account. Shahid Habib, a student, has 425 Facebook
friends. “I access the Internet easily, send emails and get
information,” he said.
Of the 4,300 students, around 2,600 are girls and most
of the outstation students are from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal,
Uttarakhand, Maharashtra and Nepal. The girls’ enrolment ratio in the
higher classes is even greater.
“Educating the girl child is necessary to empower them.
The ratio of educated girls has increased now. The poor girls can also
get an education here,” Falah headmistress Salma Jaleel told IANS.
“If someone is poor then they don’t have to pay. We will
educate them, as it is our responsibility,” Madani said.
Falah, which has a monthly fee of less than Rs 100,
provides free education, accommodation and meals to at least 30 per cent
of its students.
The institution’s alumni are pursuing research in
various universities in India and abroad.
Its hospital, Al-Falah Hospital, offers allopathy,
Ayurveda, homeopathy and Unani treatment. It serves at least 100
patients daily and provides free services to the poor irrespective of
race, caste and religion.
Azam Beg, an alumnus of Falah hailing from Rajasthan,
went on to study Unani medicine at the Aligarh Muslim University and was
twice elected students’ union president. “Falah is a junction of both
curricula, old divine and modern education. I have learnt a lot from
here and it is enough to open my heart and mind,” said Beg, who now runs
12 schools and colleges and four madrassas in different parts of
Rajasthan.
Stressing on the changes necessary in the educational
system of madrassas, Madani said: “There is an old style of teaching in
the madrassa system and certain changes are needed in the syllabus… The
teaching pattern in madrassas depends on books, not subjects; we have to
change it now,” he pointed out.
Falah has a panel to check the quality of education and
also conducts a parent-teacher meeting every three months, a rare
practice in madrassas.
One can see several wall magazines in different
languages like Arabic, Urdu and also English at Jamiatul Falah.
Mohammad Arif, a doctor of Unani medicine in Al-Falah
Hospital, thinks that madrassas should provide the lead to the community
in every field. “There are large numbers of people who follow madrassa
teaching. If the madrassas play such a role then the thinking of people
about madrassas would be changed,” Arif told IANS.
Madani states that there is a misconception that only
Muslim students can study in madrassas. “Our doors are open to students
of every religion, caste and area. Hindu students have been part of
Falah in the past.”