SSA, CAP Foundation tie up on SSA in Madrasas

Hyderabad, Jun 27: Faced with resistance to implement the Centrally-sponsored Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) in Madrasas, the Andhra Pradesh Government has taken the assistance of a non-governmental organisation to convince the members of the minority community on vocational education.

Participating in a consultative conference for linking learning and livelihood for young people-at-risk, SSA State Project Director Mohd Ali Rafath said ''we found it extremely difficult to bring into mainstream the Madrasas to impart modern education along with their regular religious education.'' He said on coming to know that the CAP Foundation, after initial resistance, had convinced the Madrasas to allow it to impart vocational education without affecting religious education imparted to the members of the community, the government decided to tie up with them to implement the SSA programme for the community's benefit.

Foundation Hyderabad chapter Director Gurpreet Bhatia said, ''initially we got a lukewarm response to our proposal. After two years of persuasion, three Madrasas came forward to collaborate with the Foundation for providing employable skills to students of the community. Based on the success, eleven other Madrasas have tied up with the Foundation for imparting employable skills to the students of the community in the next stage.'' ''So far, we have covered 700 Madrasas to provide modern education without any hindrance to the religious education imparted by theologians,'' she added.

UNI