“We have so far identified 300 institutions and surveys are being conducted across the state to identify another 600,” said Abdus Sattar, Minister for Department of Minority Education and Madrasah Affairs. According to him, the initiative will help provide them with all facilities available in a regular school.

“As part of the Minority Siksha Mission, the school will get infrastructural support, the teachers will get regular salaries and children will receive their daily dose of midday meals,” said Sattar.

Sattar added: “We have pockets like Kamarhati (in North 24-Parganas) where a number of Urdu-medium Schools are not recognied by the government. ”

He added the state budget has already made allocations to 900 madhyamik Siksha Kendras as part of the Minority Siksha Mission, which is likely to be extended to the urban areas of Garden Reach, Kidderpore, Metaibruz and Rajabar. Only those unrecognised schools, which have more than 80 students can be brought under the Mission, said sources, adding that schools of any medium — Bengali, Urdu or Hindi — can be brought under the Mission.

The Sishu Sikhsa Kendras and Madhyamik Siksha Kendras set up under Sarva Sikhsha Abhiyan has failed to check dropout rates in the minority-dominated districts of the state. While the state has a dropout of 5.7 per cent, districts like Murshidabad and Malda have dropout rates of 8 and 10.5 per cent respectively.

The initiatives
2009: English Medium Madrasahs in every district

2008: Madrasah Service Commission for appointment of teachers