National Commission of Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) Survey For Minority Schools

In News 

Recently, the National Commission of Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) conducted a nationwide assessment of minority schools. 

• The report titled “Impact of Exemption under Article 15 (5) with regards to Article 21A of the Constitution of India on Education of Minority Communities’’.

Aims and Objectives

• It was aimed at finding ways to ensure that children from minority communities get quality elementary education.
• To assess the effect of the 93rd Amendment Act on children belonging to minority communities.
  • The Constitution 93rd Amendment Act, 2005, inserting clause (5) in Article 15 enables the State to make special provisions for members of the SCs, STs and socially and educationally backward classes, for admission to all educational institutions, including private unaided institutions, but except minority institutions. 

Major Highlights of the Report 

• It was found that the largest number of out-of-school children – at 1.1 crore – belonged to the Muslim community.
• 74 per cent of students in Christian missionary schools belonged to non-minority communities. 
  • Overall, 62.50 per cent of students in such schools belonged to non-minority communities.
  • Only 8.76 per cent of the students in minority schools belong to socially and economically disadvantaged backgrounds. 
    • Since minority schools are outside the purview of the RTE Act, there is no compulsion to admit students from disadvantaged backgrounds
• The religion-wise breakup of the schools: Giving a religion-wise breakup of the schools, Christians comprise 11.54 per cent of India’s minority population, they run 71.96 per cent of schools, and Muslims with 69.18 per cent minority population run 22.75 per cent of the schools.
  • Sikhs comprise 9.78 per cent of the minority population and run 1.54 per cent of schools, Buddhists with 3.83 per cent minority population run 0.48 per cent of schools, and Jains with 1.9 per cent minority population run 1.56 per cent of schools.
• Kinds of madrasas:  According to the report, there are three kinds of madrasas in the country which are as follows :
  • Recognised madrasas: They are registered and impart both religious as well as secular education
  •  Unrecognised madrasas: They have been found deficient for registration by state governments as secular education is not imparted or other factors like lack of infrastructure
  • Unmapped madrasas: They have never applied for registration.
    •  Sachar Committee report: According to the NCPCR, the Sachar Committee report, which says 4 per cent of Muslim children (15.3 lakh) attend madrasas, has only taken into account the registered madrasas.
• Minority educational institutions: The report traces the establishment of minority educational institutions to the colonial policy of divide and rule under which they tried to divide people on the basis of economic, religious, social and political differences.
• The surge in the number of schools securing Minority Status: There was a surge in the number of schools securing Minority Status Certificate after the 93rd Amendment in 2006, with more than 85% of schools of the total schools securing the certificate in the years 2005-2009. 
  • A second surge was seen in 2010-14, after the 2012 Society judgment that made Sections 12(1)(c) and 18(3) of the RTE Act, 2009 inapplicable to unaided minority schools. In 2014, the Pramati judgment made the whole of the RTE Act inapplicable to minority schools.
• Disproportionate numbers: The report also gives examples of disproportionate numbers. 
  • For instance, in West Bengal, 92.47% of the minority population is Muslims and 2.47% are Christians. 
  • On the contrary, there are 114 Christian minority schools and only two schools with Muslim minority status.
  • Similarly, in Uttar Pradesh, though the Christian population is less than 1% there are 197 Christian minority schools in the state. 
    • This disproportionate number takes away the core objective of establishing minority educational institutions.
• Other Issues: Despite the large presence of minority students in school-going age groups, minority schools are catering to less than 8% of the minority children population.
• Recommendations 

• It has been recommended to the government to bring all minority schools, including  Madrasas under the purview of the Right to Education and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan campaign.  
• The NCPCR also backed reservations for students from minority communities in such schools.
• There is a need to lay down specific guidelines regarding the minimum percentage of students from the minority community to be admitted to the institution. 
• The report also recommended the need to link the need of the number of minority institutions in a state for a particular minority to the process of granting minority institution status for better utilisation of resources.
• Many schools have registered as minority institutions, simply because they don’t have to implement RTE but they can implement Article 30, which ensures the right of minorities to open their own institutions for cultural-linguistic and religious protection
  • It contravenes Article 21(A) which protects a child’s fundamental right to education. 
    • This exemption needs to be reviewed as it deprives education in these institutions to underprivileged children from minority communities and Article 21 (A) must prevail.

Source: IE