Lucknow, Oct 13 (IANS): In order to bring madrasa education at par with education in other schools, the students of recognised madrasas in Uttar Pradesh will be taught elementary mathematics, history, elementary sciences and civics as mandatory subjects as per the NCERT syllabus from the next academic session.

The decision has been taken by the UP Board of Madrasa Education (UPBME).

These subjects are currently optional, but henceforth, students will be taught these subjects on the pattern followed by the CBSE till the senior secondary level.

The board also decided to hold the final year examination of Kamil (graduation) and Fazil (post graduation) students in offline mode from October 25 to October 30.

According to R.P. Singh, registrar of the newly constituted UP Board of Madrasa Education, "There was a recurring demand to include modern subjects in the syllabus to fulfil the basic requirements of present times. All students, right from the beginning to senior secondary level, will be taught these subjects now on the CBSE pattern and NCERT books."

The examinations of third year Kamil students and second year Fazil students, whose number is around 14,000 to 15,000, will be conducted in offline mode amid Covid protocols, including social distancing, sanitization and wearing masks.

The UP Board of Madrasa Education (UPBME) has also decided on establishment of a dedicated IT cell for document digitization, passport verification and other digital tasks.

It was also decided to constitute a syllabus committee, affiliation committee, examination committee and results committee at the earliest.

In 2017, the board had decided to introduce modern and standardised NCERT books in Urdu besides revamping the madrasa syllabus and the changes were incorporated from the academic session of 2018- 19.

There are about 16,000 madrassas in Uttar Pradesh.