Lucknow, May 18 (IANS): The students of Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama (Nadwa) will now have access to English speaking courses.

Those who pass out from the seminary are in great demand as teachers in educational institutions of America, Britain, Thailand and Australia and as Imams in mosques, but they lose these opportunities due to lack of English-speaking abilities.

Nadwa's secretary Maulana Jafar Hasni Nadvi said that the English-speaking course will run in two shifts from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Initially 120 students will be admitted. Six classes of a batch of 20-20 students will run on the ground floor of Nadwa's Mahadul Aali building. Six teachers have been appointed for this.

The course will be of eight months. In this, apart from conversation in English, Art of Public Speech, Personality Development, Open Debate, etc. will be taught.

Similarly, six teachers have been appointed separately for Arabic.

The students of Nadwa will be able to converse in English along with Urdu, Arabic.

This will provide easy employment opportunities abroad. These people will be able to easily explain the nuances of Quran and Hadith to people in western countries.

Every year in Nadwa, students from many countries, including Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and South Africa, from Alia (equivalent to Inter) to Fazil (Inter) come to pursue education up to (equivalent to Masters).

In Nadwa, students are taught Quran, Hadith, Islamic education, Arabic, Persian, Urdu and English.

Having English in the curriculum makes the language easy to understand, but most students are unable to speak it. In view of this, the management is going to run Arabic speaking course along with English speaking.

Maulana Jafar Nadvi said that there is a great demand for the students of this country as teachers in educational institutions of America, Britain, Thailand and Australia and as Imams in mosques. But many students lose this opportunity due to not being able to converse in English.