For many madrasas, language a barrier

However, Yusra of class five and Talat of class six, like most others in a crowd of about 200, said nonchalantly: “Kuch seekhe hi nahin, kuch samajh hi nahin aaya (we didn’t learn anything, we didn’t understand anything).”

Their teacher Sakeena explained that had the PM spoken some parts in Urdu, maybe the students would have understood him better.
But she said she will discuss the address with the students in her class.

“Till now we used to organise programmes around children but this was an interesting change,” said principal Tanveer Fatima.

Qausar Jahan, who teaches Mathematics, Urdu and English, appreciated the PM’s “clear thinking”.

The communication gap with students notwithstanding, Jamia Eram Lilbanat was among the few madarsas in and around the capital that screened the PM’s address for their students. “Education is a priority of the union government and they have also allotted funds for modernisation of madarsas; we have high hopes from the PM,” said manager K S Faizi Younus in fluent English.

The madarsa has a handful of other branches in nearby Barabanki and in Lucknow and similar arrangements were made at all of them.

Though Jamia Eram Lilbanat is affiliated to Lucknow-based Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama, the latter had issued no instructions regarding the PM’s address.

Similarly, no instructions were issued from UP Madarsa Education Board, which has around 8,000 madrasas affiliated to it.

“Though we didn’t issue any order, we have received reports from some places, like Shahjahanpur, Bareilly, Kanpur and Meerut, where larger madarsas organised viewing of the PM’s address,” said board’s chairman Qazi Zainuss Sajiddin.

“Education should not be politicised as it has a direct bearing on our next generation,” said cleric Yasoob Abbas, adding the PM’s address was also screened at Jamiat ul Tabligh and Tahir ul Uloom madarsas of Lucknow.