Madrasa teachers refuse to apply for license

KATHMANDU, Dec 17: Informal teachers working in Madrasas -- traditional Muslim schools -- have refused to participate in teaching license exams citing uniqueness of their education system. They have demanded that the government recognize them without licenses required to teach in ordinary schools.[break]



“We do not require teaching licenses like other teachers working in ordinary schools,” says Mohammad Kadar Ali, the president of Madrasas Coordination Committee (MCC) of Morang district. “The government should acknowledge the unique education system of Madrasas.”



MCC recently asked the government through a formal letter to not make them apply for teaching licenses. “We put forth our demand in a recent meeting with the education minister, too,” Ali told Republica. “The minister was positive but he did not say anything concrete about it.”



MCC´s concern comes in the wake of the government´s decision to allow all teachers working informally in different community-based traditional schools -- Madarsas, Gumbas and Gurukuls -- to participate in teaching license exams to be held after about one and a half months.




The government´s decision, however, is applicable to only those informal teachers working in schools registered with the District Education Offices (DEOs) prior to November 21, 2006, the day the historic Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA) was signed by the government and the Maoists.



The government has defined its decision to allow all teachers to participate in teaching license exams as ´a chance made possible by the historic political change following the CPA. “With the signing of the CPA, the country has started marching on a completely new path,” Udaya Raj Soti, the chairman of the Teachers Service Commission, told Republica. “Hence, the chance for all teachers to vie for license.”



However, not only have operators of Madrasas criticized the government´s policy that compels informal teachers to vie for teaching licenses but also ridiculed the idea of making the date of CPA signing as cut-off date. “It is pointless to disallow teaching licences to teachers working in traditional schools registered after the CPA signing,” Subhan Ali Ansari, president of the Madrasas Management Council (MMC) says.



As per the government´s existing policy, teaching license is vital for obtaining teachers quotas provided by the government. The government has been providing relief quotas to all traditional community schools apparently in a bid to incorporate them into mainstream schooling.



Madrasas fear losing relief quotas in the lack of a policy to allow even those teachers who do not appear in teaching license exams. “It would be yet another hindrance to mainstreaming the Madrasas,” Ansari says.



In the backdrop of the hijack of an Indian Airlines plane in 1999 and a subsequent controversial report of the Research and Intelligence Wings of India (RAW) accusing the Inter-Services Intelligence of Pakistan (ISI), the government had instructed all DEOs to get all Madrasas registered. However, only 810 Madarsas have registered themselves so far.



The government is clueless about the exact number of Madrasas operating across the country. According to an informal study, more than 4,000 Madrasas are running with support from local and international Mulsim communities. The government is equally unaware of the exact number and the situation of other traditional schools like Gumbas and Gurukuls, too.