Tehri (Uttaranchal): Authorities are trying to bring madarsas onto the mainstream in Haridwar. While many states in the country are opposing the spread of madarsas, Uttaranchal government is making all efforts to bring these Muslim institutions into the mainstream in an attempt to increase spread of education.

"The overall enrolment in the primary schools in the state is 97.6 per cent. However, we are not able to achieve cent per cent due to districts like Haridwar and Udhamsingh Nagar which have consideable Muslim population, the segment which is traditionally reluctant to send their girls to school," state Education Director Mahesh Pant told reporters.

"Since Muslims make up for nearly 30 per cent of the population in these districts, we feel it would be easier for us to impart education, especially to girls, through madarsas," he said.

The strategy, which entails mobilising the community and building an environment for educational reform, will also include identifying female instructors from the community and imparting management training to religious heads, he said.

While the authorities are careful not to intervene in the religious teachings imparted by madarsas, they are insistent that students be taught from the prescribed textbooks as well, thus ensuring that they are 'literate' by all standards.

"We have told community leaders that while we will not interfere in their teaching methods, we will provide them with textbooks and train their teachers so that they can impart overall education to children," education officials said.

Uttaranchal has an overall literacy rate of 72.28 per cent, and a whopping 97.6 of its population in schooling age are currently in schools.

PTI