UP Madarsa Board likely to use intermediate colleges as exam centres

Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh Board of Madarsa Education is mulling to use intermediate colleges as examination centres instead of Madarsas, officials said on Monday, in what could be a paradigm shift for these religious schools.

A final decision in this regard will be taken in a meeting of the board likely in July, the officials said.

"From the next session, the board is mulling to make government intermediate colleges as examination centres instead of Madarsas. A final decision in this regard will be taken in the meeting of the board likely to be held in July. Some intermediate colleges have been made examination centres on a trial basis," Qamar Ali, a member of the Madrasa Board and in-charge of the examination control room (set up in Lucknow), told PTI.

Till now, examinations used to be conducted in the madrasas itself, he said. "However, it was seen that there were problems of Internet connectivity and other practical difficulties. Apart from this, the principals and managers of the madrassas tried to shrug off responsibility citing resource shortage. The intermediate colleges cannot take the escape route of not becoming examination centres. This will also fulfil the aim of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to conduct copying-free examinations," he said.

Ali said that from the next session, all the examination centres in the district will be linked to the control room monitored by minority welfare officers.

These control rooms will be connected to the control room of the madrassa Board, and the minority welfare officer will be held accountable in case of any discrepancy.

Currently, there are 539 examination centres where madrassa board examinations are conducted. "Monitoring examinations at all the centres at the same time is not possible, and from next year, it will be held division-wise. This will help easily identify anomalies," he said.

He said some shortcomings were detected on Monday during examinations held in Lucknow, Kannauj, Aligarh, Azamgarh, Mau and Ambedkar Nagar as there were no seating arrangements for the examinees, and those deployed on duty were allegedly missing from duty.

There are 16,531 madrassas in the state registered with the Uttar Pradesh Board of Madrasa Education. Of this, 558 are government-aided.