The West Bengal government got pat from National University of Educational Planning In Administration (NUEPA) for helping to bring the madrasah system of education to mainstream in the state — something that can be recommended to the entire country, the university felt.

“This is just another type of school where students have to study only an additional Arabic language and Islam Parichay. This is the best possible combination for bringing the madrasah system of education to the mainstream,” said Nazma Akhtar, Head of Department of Educational Administration, NUEPA.

NEUPA, which is under the Union Human Resource Development Ministry and deals with capacity building and research in planning and management of education in India, is of the opinion that by having a separate Board for madrasah education — not present in other states — Bengal has brought out these institutions from isolation.

Akhtar, who has done research on madrasahs in West Bengal, is in the state for attending a three-day workshop on improvement of the working of heads of madrasahs in the state.

She said the madrasahs in West Bengal are modern and more acceptable to people.

“In Delhi there are six minority schools affiliated to CBSE. Now, they suffer from isolation and there is a lack of communication between the Board and the institution,” she said. The West Bengal Board of Madrasah Education started its autonomous functioning in 1994. At present, 474 of the 576 madrasahs in the state are high madrasahs where all subjects of the State Board are taught, apart from the two additional subjects of Arabic language and Islamic studies.

The others members of NUEPA said that madrasahs in West Bengal — which has over 25 per cent minority population — have achieved the much-needed balance of present day education and religion.

Explaining the paradox of Bengal’s high literacy rate combined with poor performance in other educational indicators like access to school, Manju Narula, Assistant Professor, Department of Educational Administration of NUEPA, said: “This is because there are pockets like Malda and Murshidabad where most of the minority population resides but the penetration of education is low.”

Narula said that another important aspect of Bengal’s madrasahs is their secular character.