A permanent mechanism for the redressal of grievances pertaining to minority-related education issues will be established in the HRD Ministry. Announcing this, Arjun Singh said that he had noticed how such a ‘‘forum’’ was missing in his Ministry at present.The Minister, speaking at the end of the two-day convention on minority education in the Capital, told the assembled academics and bureaucrats that such a forum could either be a separate unit under the ministry or could be a separate body answerable to the Parliament.The CMP has laid down the setting up of two commissions concerning minority welfare. PM Manmohan Singh, even reiterated the pledges when he addressed the inaugural session of the convention yesterday.There will be the commission for minority educational institutions to provide direct affiliation to minority professional institutions with Central Universities. There will also be a separate national commission to look into the overall welfare of religious and linguistic minorities.This separate mechanism within the Ministry will be yet another step to ensure that these strategies to improve minority education that is being evolved would be monitored. Such a mechanism can help keep the pressure. Singh set a time-frame of four months to draw up an action plan on minority education.After listening to the host of academics and community leaders, Singh felt that a lot needed to be done to ensure that Muslim girls continue with their studies. Just before he spoke, his MoS, M.A.A. Fatmi had told the assembly that the minority community also needed to do its bit to ensure that the girls did attend classes. He had regretted that most girl students dropped out after they had studied up to Class IV.Singh said that he would try to allocated funds preferably from this budget to bring more minority girl children to school. This could be best done by constructing more girls’ residential schools and hostels.Without naming his predecessor, Murli Manohar Joshi, he criticised his style of functioning. Singh said that no one could claim to have the last word on anything. Singh also had a word of advice for his bureaucrats. He promised that he would not have authoritative officers dealing with teachers in a high-handed manner. ‘‘I don’t want tinpot tyrants parading as officers,’’ the minister said.
