and the ‘outsiders’ further widens the gap. The absence of an economic dream in the lives of madressah students further adds to the sense of indignation against the world outside.
Madressah students are too large a human resource to ignore. The divide between the Pakistani society and its madressahs is lethal for the stability of the state. This huge human resource of young energy should be building themselves, their families and this country a strong economic future rather than pursuing a life dependent on donations.
We ought to ask ourselves what the economic future of these two million children and those have already ‘graduated’ from madressahs is. Providing a mosque or madressah to every graduating madressah student or a group of them is neither possible nor sensible.
The state of Pakistan needs to chalk out a long-term economic plan for madressah students. As madressah reforms remain an elusive dream and the idea of introducing regular school education along with religious education in madressahs remains just an idea we would have to devise a practical way to enable madressah students earn themselves a financially stable life and position in the society.
We need to have a countrywide region specific programme of professional diplomas in technical education for madressah students.
We would need a large reservoir of technically trained personnel for the CPEC’s development and the industrial and trade opportunities that would originate with it. Technically trained madressah students can play an active role in such economic activities across the country.
The federal government should launch the programme in harmony with provincial governments and madressah representative organisations. We would need groups of experts in technical education to prepare a programme consisting of different technical training courses. We may get valuable knowledge and help from Australia which runs a vast and successful programme of technical diploma training courses.
There’s an acute shortage of efficient technical institutes in the country so we would have to be innovative and flexible in developing venues for imparting technical education. Technical courses could be held from within the premises of larger madressahs to second shifts in existing educational institutes to hands-on training in different professional fields.
Bringing madressahs into the economy is essential for the socio-economic stability of the country but is the government interested?
Email: moazzamhaiyahoo.com