Provincial Minister for Education Mian Imran Masood has said that students of religious madaris are also very talented and by imparting them modern education along with Islamic studies they may be made ideal citizens as they have great potential to perform better in every field of life.
He was addressing a seminar held in connection with training programme of madaris teachers conducted by Tehreek-Islah-e-Taleem here on Tuesday.
Imran maintained that students of religious schools acquiring knowledge of Quran and Sunnah in clean, spiritual and conducive environment are the most respectful ones.
The disciplined environment of their institutions inculcates in them the required capability, which helps to memorise and understand the holy knowledge. He said that network of madaris functioning on self help basis may be termed as the biggest NGO in Pakistan.
This NGO is providing free books, food and lodging boarding facilities to more than 1.5 million students.
He further stated that teachers of madaris are required to play an important role for producing responsible and useful individuals who may be able to realise the Western world by their thoughts and actions that Islam is a religion of tolerance and peace.
The Muslims have been wrongly brandished as fundamentalists, he maintained.
In the present circumstances the madris students have bleak chances of employment in government sector. They can only join religious seminaries as teachers or perform as Imams of mosques.
A few students succeed to do PhDs in Islamic studies and get appointment in colleges. A change in curricula of madaris is need of the hour, the minister said. It is encouraging that Tehreek-Islah-e-Taleem has prepared a new course that has been duly recognised by all schools of thoughts and subjects like Computer Science and English have also been included in it.
The government was already in search of such courses and it will extend its full co-operation for introducing this syllabus in religious institutions. He also assured the ulema that government would provide financial assistance to their institutions through Punjab Education Foundation.
Addressing on the occasion. Head of Jamia Ashrafia Abdul Rahim Ashrafi said that ulema and government have reached on 90 percent consensus regarding the affairs of religious educational institutions. He disclosed that all the schools of thought have unanimously decided that only matriculate would be admitted in madaris.
Highlighting the salient features of new course, head of Tehreek-Islah-e-Taleem, Dr Amin said that there is no proper arrangement for training of religious teachers. Due to this reason, their knowledge is not up to date.
The new course has been prepared in such a style that students would be taught modern subjects simultaneously along with Islamic studies.
Maulana Muhammad Khan, Hafiz Abdul Rehman and Professor Abdul Jabbar Shakir also spoke on the occasion.