The Uttar Pradesh Board of Madarsa Education is mulling to use of intermediate colleges as examination centers for its students instead of madrassas, officials said, in what could be a paradigm shift for these religious schools.
A final decision in this regard will be taken in a meeting of the board likely to be held in July, they said.
"From the next session, the board is mulling making government intermediate colleges as examination centers instead of madrassas. A final decision in this regard will be taken in the meeting of the board likely to be held in July. Some intermediate colleges have been made examination centers on a trial basis," Qamar Ali, a member of the Madrasa Board and in charge of the examination control room (set up in Lucknow), told PTI on Monday.
Till now, the examinations used to be conducted in the madrassas itself, he said.
"However, it was seen that there were problems with internet connectivity and other practical difficulties. Apart from this, principals and managers of the madrassas tried to shrug off responsibility citing resource shortage. The intermediate colleges cannot take the escape route of not becoming examination centers. This will also fulfill the aim of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to conduct copying-free examinations," Ali said.
He said from the next session, all the examination centres in the district will be linked to the control room monitored by minority welfare department officers.
These control rooms will be connected to the control room of the Madarsa Board, and the minority welfare officers will be held accountable in case of any discrepancy, he added.
Currently, there are 539 examination centers where Madarsa board examinations are conducted.
"Monitoring examinations at all the centers at the same time is not possible, and from next year, it will be held division-wise. This will help easily identify anomalies," Ali said.
He said some shortcomings were detected on Monday during examinations held in Lucknow, Kannauj, Aligarh, Azamgarh, Mau, and Ambedkar Nagar as there were no seating arrangements for the examinees, and those deployed on duty were allegedly missing from duty.
There are 16,531 madrassas in the state registered with the Uttar Pradesh Board of Madrasa Education. Of this, 558 are government-aided.