Half of the religious seminaries, operating in six tribal agencies and four frontier regions, are not registered, according to a census report recently released by the directorate of education, Fata.

The census report on religious seminaries in tribal areas, carried out for the first time, covers 409 religious seminaries in which 49,672 students, including 31,719 boys and 17,953 girls, are studying.

The report says that 204 of the total 409 religious seminaries in tribal areas are operating without registration while the administration of 14 seminaries preferred ‘no response’ to the question regarding registration.

The document shows that 202 religious seminaries in South Waziristan, 95 in North Waziristan, 36 in Kurram , 26 in Khyber, three in Mohmand , 21 in Bajaur, four in FR DI Khan, three in FR Kohat , 18 in FR Bannu and one in FR Lakki are operating.

JUI-F leader says government has made registration process very complicated

The report says that 83 seminaries in South Waziristan, 69 in North Waziristan, 24 in Kurram, 16 in Khyber, three in FR DI Khan and one each in Bajaur and Mohmand tribal agencies are unregistered.

Jamiat Ulama-i- Islam-Fazl provincial chief Maulana Gul Naseeb Khan told this scribe that applications for registration of religious seminaries had been pending since long.

He said that federal government had made process of registration very complicated. “The government should take it serious and should remove hurdles in the registration process,” he said. He added that seminaries were playing a vital role in imparting religious education to millions of students in the country.

“We want Deeni Madressahs get registered with education department. I have raised this issue on floor of the Senate but nobody is bothering. When the independent states of Swat and Chitral integrated into the government of Pakistan, then the existing Madressahs were streamlined into the education department and they are still following the same system,” said Gul Naseeb.

He said that they wanted equal status, modern facilities and other incentives for religious seminaries operating in Khyber Pakhtumkhwa and tribal areas. He said that they wanted religious seminaries should get every modern facility that could help them promote Islam and Islamic values.

Zarnoor Afridi, deputy chief of Jamaat-i- Islami, Fata chapter, said that his party wanted complete integration of religious seminaries into mainstream education system. He said that religious seminaries should get registered with higher education department.

“We want that government should eliminate the difference between a Madressah student and a university student. This discrimination on the basis of ‘religious education’ and ‘contemporary education’ should be eliminated once and for all,” said Mr Afridi.

He said that a primary schoolteacher got a salary package to the tune of Rs60,000 while a Madressah teacher drew only Rs6,000. He said that drastic reforms should be introduced in the curriculum of religious seminaries after taking all stakeholders into confidence.

The JI leader said that his party supported the idea of amalgamation of religious education with contemporary education. “The teachers and students of religious seminaries should be provided with modern facilities including computer sets so that they could face the modern day challenges,” he said.

The census report titled ‘Statistical Profile of Deeni Madaris in Fata’ is compiled under the auspices of directorate of education, Fata. Interestingly, the report does not mention even a single religious seminary in Orakzai tribal agency.

An official in the directorate of education, requesting anonymity, told this scribe that the census report should be not billed as complete report in all respects. “Due to law and order situation and security forces operation in Orakzai Agency, data on religious seminaries could not be collected during 2013. Our next census report on religious seminaries would include data of the tribal areas left out. The fresh census report 2014-15 will be published shortly,” he added.

The report says that the 409 seminaries comprise 131 Tajweed-O-Qirat, 174 Takhtani, 68 Mauqoulf-i- Alaih, 33 Daur-i- Hadith and three Iftah levels. It notes that there are 149 seminaries for boys, 69 for girls and 194 have co-education system in the tribal areas.

“The enrollment in overall religious seminaries is 6.2 per cent, in non-government institutes it is 19.1 per cent and that of public sector institutes stands at 74.7 per cent of students in Fata,” the document reveals.

The report is focused on details regarding number of registered and unregistered religious seminaries operating in the tribal areas both under the control of federal and provincial governments, number of teaching faculty, student’s enrollment and basic facilities.

The document gives no information regarding co-curricular activities of the students and other important missing facilities like sports and computer labs etc in the religious seminaries in the tribal areas.

The census report, however, does not contain information regarding service structure, salaries package and recruitment procedure of teachers in these religious seminaries.

It says that 30 per cent religious seminaries have no boundary walls, 83 per cent are without washrooms and 69 per cent are without water and 74 per cent have no electricity. It adds that 24 per cent seminaries don’t have boarding houses while 23 per cent are without any library.

The report says that around 1,963 teachers are imparting religious education to students in 737 seminaries for boys and 297 seminaries for girls while 929 teachers are teaching in mixed /co-education seminaries. The total number of fulltime students in these seminaries, the report reveals, is 83,442 including 55,058 boys and 28,384 girls irrespective of age group.

Similarly, it says that around 69,059 students including 46,153 boys and 22,906 girls are reading as part-time pupils while the number of students enrolled in formal education in the seminaries is 49,672 including 31,719 boys and 17,953 girls.

The census report says that 350 seminaries are affiliated with Wafaqul Madaris (Deoband), two with Wafaqul Madaris Shia, three with Wafaqul Madaris Salfia (Ahle Hadees), eight with Wafaqul Madaris (Bralvi) and 41 seminaries chose not to respond to the question regarding their affiliation.

“We have been able to make gradual improvements in carrying out census for the first time in Fata and this year the census has covered greater number of religious seminaries. The census has collected vital gender-wise information on numbers, areas, enrollment and facilities in religious seminaries,” the report concludes.

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2015

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