In this Sunday, Feb. 1, 2015 photo, Pakistani students of a madrassa, or Islamic school, eat their lunch at their seminary in Islamabad, Pakistan. There’s no exact number of madrassas in Pakistan but estimates put the number in the tens of thousands. They provide food, housing and a religious education to students from around the country. Many teach both male and female students. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
The federal government has placed 30,000 madrassas (seminaries) under the administrative control of the Education Ministry. The move is being called a breakthrough which will help bring madrassas on par with modern educational institutes.
The federal cabinet’s meeting on Tuesday approved the proposal tabled by the Federal Education Minister, Shafqat Mehmood.
The approval is a result of PTI government’s efforts to introduce reforms for madrassas since it assumed power. The party had brought similar changes in KP seminaries during its last tenure in the province.
A lot more work is required to implement this change at a national level, said the minister. The Education Minister has held several meetings with religious leaders and clerics of different sects to get their approval.
Under the reforms, the government intends to spend Rs. 2 billion to regularize the madrassas with annual spending of Rs. 1 billion. Currently, around 2.5 million students are studying in these seminaries.
Via: Pakistan Today
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