Wipro arm to help madrasahs

The Department of Minority Affairs & Madrasah Education has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Wipro formalising future association for the improvement of the quality of education in West Bengal madrasahs.

The department has been in talks with Wipro for the last six months and has decided to tie-up with the corporate for academic and administrative support in the field of madrasah education in the state.

Wipro would participate in the project through its associates, primarily, Vikramshila education resource society in Kolkata.

The corporate has been working with schools across seventeen states in the country through its 'Wipro applying thoughts in schools' initiative. This will be the first project of its scale in West Bengal. The department has identified 15 madrasahs in Kolkata and adjoining districts out of the total 503 madrasahs in the state for a 24 month pilot project. These are higher secondary level madrasahs affiliated to the West Bengal Council for higher secondary education.

"Going by the trends of the knowledge society,we want to transform our madrasahs into 'learning resource centers' to impart secular and contemporary education, that will enhance the employability of the minority youths.", said Abdul Sattar, minister for Minority affairs and madrasah education, West Bengal.

"We want to move towards a common school system", he added. Wipro would provide assistance on matters of curriculum modification, teachers' training, and management of education, and obviously on matters relating to how to use technology to impact the public education system in a positive way, said Vijay Gupta, vice president, community initiatives, Wipro.

The state government is committed to providing hardware components to all the madrasah institutions in the state, said Sattar. Wipro would provide the software component.

"The MIS software can be useful for the purpose of education management, and other softwares and learning compact discs can be provided that are developed by the Azim Premji foundation", Gupta added.

The department is in the final stages of embarking on a Rs 1 crore project for skill development of minority youth in the state.

"We are in the initial process of selecting the service providers who would be providing job relevant training to these youths. The course fees would be proportionately subsidised for the students depending on their socio-economic backgrounds", said Pawan Agarwal, secretary to the department of minority affairs.

"They can pursue such courses alongside their formal education, and this would greatly enhance their employability", he added.

The department is further looking at setting up a regional office for managing the total madrasah education system in Salt Lake. A bill for the upgradation of the Calcutta Madrasah college into a university will be tabled in the winter session of the assembly, informed Sattar.

"We are looking at adding 100 more madrasah institutions in the state by next year. Out of which 10 will be government madrasahs", he added. Currently, there is only one government madrasah in the state.