Sukhera is pleased with this system of madrasa education. He was finding it hard to bear the expenses of all his five children — three sons and two daughters, all studying in government schools. He sells roasted corncobs in front of the Government Sadiq College Women University, Bahawalpur, in winters, and Kulfis (a type of ice-cream, typically served in the shape of a cone) in summers, to make a living.
He is very conscious about the education of his all children. His eldest son is in class 10 now, a daughter in class 8 and the second daughter in class 6. The youngest twins were studying in class 5 last year when one of his neighbours told him to withdraw all his sons from the government school and admit them to a madrasa, where not only religious but science education was being imparted totally free. Even the madrasa also gives two pairs of clothing annually and two times meal a day.
Alam Sukhera doesn’t want to withdraw his elder son from the government as he was nearing his target of completing his education, after which he might get a government job. However, after visiting the madrasa personally, he decided to admit his twins there. And now he is very satisfied with his decision, as it has not only lessened his burden financially but also the doubts about the future of his young sons.
There are thousands of parents like Muhammad Alam Sukhera across Pakistan who are forced by poverty every year to admit their children to madrasas. Media reports, based on surveys/ research studies, have revealed time and again in the past years that the number of madrasas and their enrolments are increasing with each passing year, though the federal and all provincial governments claim giving education free of cost to all children in the age group of five to 16 years.
Mufti Muneebur Rehman fully agrees to a suggestion that poverty is forcing people to admit their children to madrasas. He is head of the Ittehadul Tanzeemat-i-Madaris-i-Deenia, an umbrella organisation of the five mainstream madrasa boards in the country. He tells Cutting Edge at a seminar in Lahore that the main reason for the spread of seminaries and enrolment of more and more students with them was due to a growing population and an increase in poverty, as people were finding it really hard to send their children to schools.
However, Sahibzada Abdul Mustafa Hazarvi doesn’t agree with Mufti Muneebur Rehman. Performing his duties as the Nazim-i-Ala of the Tanzeemul Madaris Ahle Sunnat, the board for seminaries affiliated with the Barelvi school of thought, for over five years, he says that a lack of a clear policy is causing expansion of the madrasa education. The government is not doing anything to streamline the madrasa education, but it wants the five boards and the seminaries registered with them to stop functioning at once, he tells Cutting Edge.
Sahibzada Hazarvi claims that there are around 9,000 madrasas affiliated with the Barelvi school of thought, imparting religious education to more than 1.3 million students. He says that there has been an increase of 10% in the number of seminaries and students during the last two years.
Maulana Abdul Maalik holds “Western propaganda against Islam” responsible for proliferation of madrasas during the past four, five years. The nazim-i-ala of Rabitatul Madaris says that around one million students are studying in their 1,000 seminaries, and the number of students is increasing every year due to the Western propaganda against madrasas and Islam. This propaganda is forcing Muslims to learn more and more about their religion, he claims.
According to estimates, the number of madrasas in Pakistan has crossed 35,000 from fewer than 300 since the creation of Pakistan. A report claims that some 3.5 million students are enrolled with 35,337 madrasas in the country. Among the five mainstream boards, the largest network of seminaries belongs to the Deobandi school of thought, which are registered with the Wafaqul Madaris al-Arabia.
Abdul Qudus Mohammadi, an official of the Wafaqul Madaris al-Arabia says that around 18,600 madrasas have been registered with the board across the country, and they are imparting religious education to more than two million students, both boys and girls.
Another major board is the Wafaqul Madaris al-Salfia, the Ahle Hadith school of thought, which has 1,400 registered institutions with around 40,000 students. Mohammad Yasin Zafar, the nazim of Wafaqul Madaris al-Salfia, says that the number of students is increasing as many Ahle Hadith communities, including those in Karachi, have established seminaries for imparting both religious and contemporary education.
A relatively smaller board is Wafaqul Madaris Al-Shia, which has affiliation of around 460 seminaries, with the strength of around 18,000 students, mostly boys. A spokesperson for the board sees only a nominal increase in the number of students or seminaries and attributes it to an increase in the population.
An interesting phenomenon, according to some studies, is the increase of girls enrolment with seminaries across the country. The madrasas boards statistics show that even girls have outnumber boys in registration for examinations at lower classes of Dars-e-Nizami – the madrasa syllabus.
According to a report, published in English-language daily The News International, in year 2016, 123,844 girls and 97,159 boys will take annual examinations of different levels of Dars-e-Nizami, registered with the Wafaq-ul-Madaris Al-Arabia.
An administrator at Jamia Faizan Aulia, a Barelvi madrasa, says that because of preaching of Dawat-e-Islami, the trend of sending girls to madrasas among the Barelvi community has increased. Now all madrasas combine religious education with modern subjects to varying degrees and by doing this they are playing a major role in promoting literacy and awareness among Muslim girls, he claims.
Mufti Riazuddin Ahmad seconds the assertion that religious education for girls is getting popular among parents as well as students. As the administrator of a Deobandi seminary for girls in Karachi, he has observed an increase in the number of higher degree classes in madrasas. This year, 2,148 girls will appear in the examination of Darja Alima (equal to MA Arabic and Islamic Studies), as compared to 9,067 boys, he quotes statistics of the Deobandi board.
Maulana Ameen Waheedi, the nazim-e-ala of a seminary for girls Lahore, finds several factors behind the growing number of female students from lower-middle and middle-income families in madrasas. In fact, he adds, madrasa education for girls brings many economic and social opportunities. Besides becoming pious and respectable women of society, madrasa education provides them with the option of taking up teaching profession or setting up a small madrasa of their own. These women have even better marriage prospects, believes Maulana Waheedi.
However, whatever are the reasons for surge in madrasa education, especially their popularity among parents of girls, the sector needs immediate attention of the federal and provincial governments. Various reports suggest that some madrasas in Pakistan had been involved in extremism and terrorism activities, directly or indirectly.
There’s great need to bring the sector into the mainstream, so that a check could be maintained on activities of the madrasas and their productive role and services could be recognised positively.
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