Muslim organisations in the State do not favour the M.A. Khader Committee recommendation to make the school timing from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Even when they agree that there are certain advantages for utilizing the morning hours for school education, they point out that there will be certain disadvantages from the State’s social perspective.
The prime reason for Muslim bodies opposing the school time change is the fear it will upset the religious education being imparted through madrasas in the morning. There are thousands of madrasas being run by different Muslim organisations in the State, where children are given religious and moral education from 7 a.m. to 8.30 a.m.
The Samastha Kerala Jamiyyathul Ulamas, two mega bodies of Muslim scholars headed by Syed Jifri Muthukoya Thangal and Kanthapuram A.P. Aboobacker Musliar respectively, have called upon the government to reject the recommendation to change the school timing.
Although they did not come out with explicit statements against the recommendation, their resentment was palpable. “Reforms are welcome. But they should be implemented in such a way as to help everyone to benefit from it. The practical side of school time change should be studied with the social set-up of Kerala in mind,” said Jamal Karulai, representing the Muslim Jamat.
The Muslim Jamat secretariat asked the government to reject the recommendation as it would be directly detrimental to the madrasa education of 15 lakh children in the State. “The situation in Kerala does not warrant a change in school timing. We don’t have to imitate the West in everything,” said Muslim Jamat general secretary Syed Ibrahim Khaleel Bukhari.
Samastha Kerala Sunni Yuvaja Sangham leader Abdussamad Pookkottur went a step further saying that the school timing change was part of an agenda to destroy the system of religious education being given to Muslim children. He said it was an agenda of atheists to shoo away the children from religious education.
Although school timing change is one of the recommendations of the committee headed by M.A. Khader, former director of the State Council of Education Research and Training, the committee has offered a pre-requisite that any of its recommendation should be implemented only after reaching a consensus through discussions.
