Dhami govt scraps Madarsa board as promised, sets up Minority education body

The Dhami government has finally abolished the State Madarsa Board.

The Uttarakhand government on Tuesday formed the Uttarakhand State Minority Education Authority (USMEA), which will decide the syllabus of the education institutions meant for the minorities, and will be affiliated to the State Education Board.

Advertisement

The Uttarakhand government has rendered the State Madarsa Board obsolete as it formally constituted the USMEA to regulate minority educational institutions from the next academic session. It announced the abolition of the Board. Under the new system, Uttarakhand State Minority Education Authority will take the final decision on the syllabus and other curriculum of the minority educational institutions from July 2026, while the State Madarsa Board will be obliterated from the state’s educational system.

Speaking on the matter, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said, “Our government has decided to constitute the State Minority Education Authority and dissolve the Madarsa Board. This Authority will now determine the syllabus and nature of education to be provided to the minority community children. All minority institutions will now have to be affiliated with the Uttarakhand Board of School Education.”

Dhami said that the Madarsa board will be rendered obsolete once USMEA starts working. He added that the decision to disband the board was taken as a large number of madrasas were run illegally and functioned as centres of radicalisation. According to Dhami, madrasas were not imparting conventional education to the children of the minority community.

Special Secretary to the state minority welfare department, Parag Madhukar Dhakate, stated that the decision to disband madrasa education in the state was announced during the last assembly session by the Chief Minister. Dhakate stated that all minority educational institutions would be brought under the “umbrella” of the Uttarakhand State Minority Education Authority, and they will be affiliated with the Uttarakhand Board of Education.

Parag further explained that the first USMEA constituted by the government has included several scholarly educationists and professors to determine the fresh educational curriculum for minority students in the state. He claimed that authority includes educationists from all minority communities.

Significantly, the first USMEA constituted by the Dhami government will be an 11-member body with Professor Surjeet Singh Gandhi as its chairman. Besides Gandhi, USMEA includes eight government-nominated academicians and two ex officio members. The director general of school education and the director of the State Educational Research and Training Council will be ex officio members, while the director of minority welfare will function as the member secretary of the authority.