BHOPAL: To help school dropouts from underprivileged sections, the Madhya Pradesh Madarsa Board is planning to open the doors of 10 of its best madarsas for non-Muslim students. The madarsas will help prepare these students for graduate programmes in Arts and Commerce.The board is in talks with the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) to start special study centres (SSC) for its Bachelor Preparatory Programme (BPP). The BPP is a six-month course, especially for school dropouts to facilitate admission to IGNOU’s BCom and BA courses.
“We’ve held talks with the IGNOU top brass in Bhopal and will soon send a formal proposal,” Syed Imad Uddin, the MP Madarsa Board chairman said.The Board chief believes that if the plans fall in place in time, the SSCs will be started at the madarsas by October-November this year. “This will serve two purposes; firstly render school dropouts an opportunity to fulfil their dreams of becoming graduates, secondly, by allowing school dropouts from all communities to study at the madarsas, the myths about madarsas will also be eliminated,” he maintained.
The regional director of IGNOU Bhopal Regional Centre, Amit Chaturvedi, confirmed the development. “It’s a great idea and once a detailed proposal comes to us, we’ll send it for processing to our headquarters in New Delhi. MP is not the first to have such plans, as in 2008-2009 similar study centres were opened at four madarsas of UP, including Bhadohi, Kakori, Muzaffarnagar and Amroha,” said Chaturvedi.
“We’re already running SSCs for jail inmates, and SC/ST in MP and plan to run similar centres for transgenders in times to come,” said the IGNOU regional director.
What is BPP?
The BPP is a six-month bridge course and anyone above 18 years of age, irrespective of educational qualifications can be enrolled. No formal education is needed for the course, which once cleared makes the student eligible for admission to BA, BCom and Bachelor of Tourism Studies courses at IGNOU. The course comprises three subjects, Maths, Social Studies and Commerce and the enrolled student can opt for any of the two subjects.