Madrasah Education System in West Bengal
- 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.
GOVT. RECOGNIZED & AIDED MADRASAHS
RECOGNISED AIDED MADRASAH
614
SENIOR MADRASAH
EDUCATION SYSTEM
HIGHER MADRASAH
EDUCATION SYSTEM
JUNIOR
MADRASAH (8TH
CLASS STANDARD
114
HIGH MADRASAH
(10TH CLASS
STANDARD)
188
HIGHER
SECONDARY
MADRASAH (10+2)
210
TOTAL HIGH MADRASAH
512
ALIM MADRASH
(10TH CLASS
STANDARD)
36
FAZIL MADRASAH
(10+2)
66
TOTAL SENIOR MADRASAH
102
RECOGNIZED UN-AIDED MADRASAHS
RECOGNISED UN-AIDED
MADRASAHS
194
JUNIOR HIGH
MADRASAH
122
HIGH
MADRASAH
07
SENIOR
MADRASAH
65
COMPERATIVE FIGURES OF RECOGNITION AND UPGRADATION
1947-48
2009-10
2010-11
2011-12
2012-13
Jr. High Madrasah
90
90
110
114
114
High Madrasah
7
389
394
395
398
Senior Madrasah (upto Alim)
2
102
102
102
102
H.S. Madrasah
0
167
172
198
210
Fazil Madrasah
0
54
55
55
66
Madrasahs with Vocational Stream
0
156
156
183
183
450
400
350
300
1947-48
250
2009-10
200
2010-11
150
2011-12
100
2012-13
50
0
Jr. High
Madrasah
High Madrasah Senior Madrasah H.S. Madrasah
(upto Alim)
Fazil Madrasah
Madrasahs with
Vocational
Stream
GROWTH OF MADRASAHS (BY TYPE)
GROWTH OF STUDENTS
1977-1978
Student
Student under
Board's
Examination
2009-10
2011-12
2012-13
Boys
Girls
Total
Boys
Girls
Total
Boys
Girls
Total
182781 259772 442553 187474 278728 466202 193308 290554 483862
4023
42200
48812
51041
Student under Board's Examination
60000
50000
40000
Student under
Board's
Examination
30000
20000
10000
0
1977-1978
2009-10
2011-12
2012-13
HIGH MADRASAH TEACHERS-STUDENTS – PRESENT SCENARIO
AVERAGE
NO. OF
NO. OF TOTAL NO.
NO. OF
NO. OF VACANT NO. OF
PERCENT NO. OF PERCENT
SANCTIONED
STUDENTS
OF
MADRASAHS
TEACHERS POSTS STUDENTS
AGE
GIRLS
AGE
TEACHERS
PER
STUDENTS
MADRASAH
398
7847
6501
1346
389566
979
154411
39.63% 235155 60.37%
TEACHER-STUDENT RATIO
NO. OF SANCTION
TEACHERS
(7847)
PRESENT STUDENT
STRENGTH
(389566)
1:49
PRESENT TEACHERS
STRENGTH
(6501)
PRESENT STUDENT STRENGTH
(389566)
1:59
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.
SOME SUGGESTIONS TO REDUCE THE NO. OF DROP-OUTS
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
REASONs of drop-out
SOLUTION
Lack of commitment of the teachers and attachment More number of quality teachers necessary,
with students
Training of teachers
No accountability on part of the teachers
Introduction of a system to ensure accountability
of teachers
Students are not sure about their career plans beyond Motivation of students – and provide a positive
eighth standard
outlook, Facilitate visioning among the students
Parents are not interested to know about educational Involvement of parents and parents teach
progress of their children
interactive session to be conducted.
Infrastructure is there but these are not maintained Optimum utilization of existing infrastructure,
and utilized
Installation of Modern equipment
Lack of attachments of the students with the school
Sports / physical activities / social utility-based
programmes
The examples of well performing Madrasahs are never Identification of Best practices and wide
highlighted as examples to most of the institutions
dissemination
There is no record for absenteeism of the students Proper maintenance of record of attendance and
and the reason thereof
regular monitoring
Poor attendance of students immediately before and Streamlining of evaluation procedure instead of
during examination
too many and repetitive evaluations
No pro-active role of teachers in educating students. Quality education by Training, evaluation and
integration of teachers.
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
REASONs of drop-out
SOLUTION
The classroom teaching is different from the text book
materials and students cannot follow afterwards which
Coordination between text book materials and
result in poor performance of the students in the
classroom teaching
examination
Students are de-motivated and not aware of the
Orientation and sensitization of the students on the
incentives available
available incentives
When the weak students are promoted to higher class in
Introduction of Bridge course for weak students
automatic process, it becomes difficult for them to follow
The syllabus is not at par with other boards as result of
which if the students takes admission in other schools, it Modernization and upgradation of syllabus
becomes difficult for them to follow
Without separate common room for the girls, it becomes
Separate common room for girls
difficult for them to come to the schools
In most of the cases, toilets are not functional and there
is no provision for running water. This creates particular Toilets with running water separately for boys and
problems for the girls who cannot go to the toilets during girls
school hours
The teaching methods are old fashioned and repetitive
which many students find boring and fails to ignite
Introduction of Audio-visual teaching methods
curiosity in them
Girls when they gets admission in high Madrasah have to
travel long distance, even five kilometers to go those
Hostel facility for students, particularly for the girls.
schools. This is not acceptable to the parents of these
girls
No monitoring system in Madrasah as a result of which
Dedicated inspectors for Madrasah
quality of the schools is not monitored
In many cases teachers are not appointed locally. As a
result the teachers have to travel on an average for 2-4 Appointment of teachers locally so that teachers do
hours to come to school. The teachers therefore are
not have to travel for long hours every day and
always in a hurry to go back home. They cannot
concentrate more on teaching
concentrate whole heartedly for teaching the students.
REASONs of drop-out
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
SOLUTION
The students are at a loss as to their career plans Training of students – vocational training linkage
after they pass out eighth standard
forward linkage
In some schools the number of students are much
more than the teachers, while in other schools there Proper teacher-student ratio so that there is not
are not enough students compared to the number of much discrepancy
teachers
There is no reward system to acknowledge the special Introduction of scholarship for the meritorious
efforts put in by meritorious students
students
Weak students stay away from school
Counseling cell for weak students
Teachers take the classes in an uninterrupted manner
Gaps between periods so that the teachers regain
without any gap between classes and in many cases
their energy before taking a fresh class
they become stressed out.
The teaching method is conventional and there is no
provision for recapitulation of the lessons they have Provision for quiz and recapitulation classes
learnt over months.
It becomes difficult to send children to schools by the
mothers who are working, particularly in the 100 days’
Introduction of crèche
work scheme because the older children have to take
the responsibility to look after the smaller children
The schools do not have boundary walls and it
becomes unsafe for the students, particularly for the Building of boundary walls around Madrasah
girl students
The toilets in schools are very dirty and this acts as a Appointment of cleaning persons for the toilets
deterrent for the students
through MGNREGS
30
The evaluation system is very stringent at times and Proper motivation of the students through giving
the student gets very low marks. This causes major them more marks and slightly lenient answer
demotivation for the students
script evaluation.
31
Demotivated students seen in Madrasahs
Introduction of spoken English classes