The state government is set to announce a project to make 100 of the existing 558 madrasas as ‘model madrasas’. Last year, the department of minority affairs and madrasah education had taken up a pilot project to upgrade 10 madrasas as model madrasas.

“There is no paucity of funds for madrasas. We have a departmental budget of Rs 300 crore for madrasas and we are keen to meet the requirements of the institutions,” said Abdus Sattar, Minister for Minority Development and Madrasa Education.

Other than the resources by the Sarva Sikhsa Abhiyaan, the department spent nearly Rs 42 lakh on the ten model madrasas last year. Department sources say the project of converting 100 madrasas into model ones will incur an expenditure of Rs 5 crore.

Like the pilot project, the upgradation of 100 madrasas will be coordinated by the Vikramshila Education Resource Society (VERS), a non-government organisation and Wipro Technologies.

“Our effort is to bring multimedia in the teaching process, give special impetus on girl education and train the teachers,” said Sattar.

While organisations like Wipro Technologies provide the teaching aids for E-learning, the department and the West Bengal Board of Madrasa Education provide additional teachers and infrastructure.

According to the state government, the pilot project of modernising the 10 madrasas has shown the desired results.

According to department officials, a VERS study has shown that the project has achieved a considerable success. “We have noticed immense change in students in a year. They are attending classes regularly and dropout rate has reduced,” said Sudipta Nag, the Vertical Incharge of Operations, VERS.

The West Bengal Board of Madrasa Education has also started grading system for Class X exam this year.