For madrasa students,road to DU rife with roadblocks

Rahman is among the numerous madrasa students who come to Delhi University every year to get admission in one of the undergraduate courses. And most of them end up compromising on their choice of subject since they do not meet the minimum eligibility criteria prescribed by the university.

“By the time my results were out,admissions in DU were almost over. I managed to get a seat in Urdu (H) at Satyawati College. Otherwise,I would have had to defer my studies by a year,” Rahman said.

Last year,DU had directed its colleges to admit students from madrasas after the institutions were recognised by state boards. The recognition came with a rider — students in madrasas would have to be taught all the necessary subjects in which they wanted a graduate degree.

“The university directive was based on the recommendations of the Sachar Committee and universities had received a circular from the MHRD (Ministry of Human Resource Development) on this. While the recommendations have been implemented,the problem faced by these students have not been solved,” principal of Zakir Husain College Aslam Parvaiz said.

“Moreover,most madrasas do not have teachers or lab facilities to teach science subjects,” he said.

Talking about the problems faced by madrasas students,Parvaiz said,“Many students from madrasas contact the college for admissions. Unfortunately,they either do not have the required marks or have not studied the subjects.”

Admission problems faced by madrasa students is not limited to medical sciences. According to Hamid Raza,a DU aspirant and also a madrasa student,subjects like economics and commerce are also out of reach for them.

“We study a range of subjects such as Arabic,Persian,Urdu,Unani medicine,history — tarik-i-Hind (history of India) and tarik-i-Islam (history of Islam). We know how to read the stars and predict the weather. But,we are not taught sciences the way other Boards teach. Getting admission in DU for commerce is not possible,” Raza said.