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Lakshadweep move to end Friday school holiday will hit madrassas: MP

The new rule also changed the school starting time from 10am to 9.30am

lakshadweep mp modi Mohammed Faizal P.P. (right) with PM Narendra Modi | Official Facebook account

Ever since Praful Khoda Patel took charge as the administrator in December 2020, the residents of Lakshadweep had witnessed a slew of new rules and regulations in their islands. Some of these new rules had caused widespread resentment among the islanders. The administration’s move to change the school holiday from Friday to Sunday is the latest one on the list. The school holiday has been Friday for decades in Lakshadweep. The new rule brought out by the Lakshadweep Education Department also changed the school starting time from 10am to 9.30am.

Over 97 per cent of the population of Lakshadweep is Muslim. The education system had been designed in such a way that students attended both madrassas and regular schools.

“Until now, the system was in such a way that at 7am madrassa classes would start; it would end by 9am, then children will have regular school classes from 10am to 5pm,” said Salahudheen P., a resident of Kavaratti island.

“There will be a one-hour lunch break in between. Children usually don’t bring tiffin, but would go home, eat and come back. Even Kendriya Vidyalaya of Kavaratti followed this 10am-5pm schedule, understanding the peculiarities of the islands. We do not have any private schools here. Only private madrassas are there. Also, the madrassas here are not something intended to impart fundamentalism—they should not be compared to Mujahideen centres in Pakistan or Afghanistan. People of Lakshadweep are very secular. We don’t have any Muslim organisations here—not even Muslim League. So, there is no situation to stop the madrassas here,” Salahudheen said.

Mohammed Faizal P.P., MP of Lakshadweep, said that now the teachers should report to the school by 9am. “In a way, they [administration] want to affect the madrassa system,” he says.

“The administration should discuss these things with people of Lakshadweep. Every school has a school management committee. Under the district panchayat, there is an education-monitoring committee. And, nothing had been discussed with any members of these committees. I am a member of Parliament. No discussion with me either. This is an undemocratic way of doing it,” Faizal declared.

Faizal said that Lakshadweep is facing a situation where there aren’t enough teachers. “For the last five months, we don’t have enough teachers to take subjects for students of high school and higher-secondary students. Until now, the teacher shortage was dealt with by appointing teachers on contract. After the current administrator took charge, they are not allowing us to take teachers on contract even. Instead of bringing some positive changes in this regard, the administration wants to bring unwanted reforms. No administrators in the past had any issues with the school system here. We used to get more school hours than other states or Union territories in India. Now Friday became a working day. Children won’t get a chance to go for the Jumaa (the Muslim Friday prayer),” he said.

The intention of this rule is communal, according to Salahudheen. “There was no need for this law change. It is a premeditated effort to affect public tranquillity. They [the administration] wants the people to come out and protest. They want to make people frustrated. That’s their intention and that is not correct. But practically, I feel, we can manage with these new changes. But as a community, it may not be the way people would be seeing it. As a community, people would feel that it is another effort to curb our rights. There is huge discontent among people. But, protests and all are… [not possible], because there is an undeclared emergency here. It is more like a dictatorship. So, there may not be big protests. But people are very frustrated and discontented about everything happening here.”

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