Scheme for Providing Education to Minorities/ Madrassas (SPEMM)
- The Central Government has not yet given permission to continue the Scheme for Providing Quality Education to Madrasas/Minorities (SPEMM).
- The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment has sought an answer from the Central Government for this delay.
- The Committee also pointed out that the limited number of States/UTs may reduce the effectiveness of the scheme due to its participation.
SPEMM
- It is implemented by the Department of School Education and Literacy under the Ministry of Education.
- Under this scheme, financial assistance is provided to madrassas and minority institutions.
It has two sub-schemes:
- Scheme for Providing Quality Education in Madrassas (SPQEM): It aims to bring about qualitative improvement in Madrassas to enable them to enable Muslim children to attain the standards of the national education system in formal academic subjects.
- Scheme for Development of Infrastructure of Minority Institutions (IDMI): This scheme aims to facilitate the education of minorities by increasing the infrastructure of schools in minority institutions (primary/secondary/senior secondary schools) to provide formal education facilities to the children of minority communities. implemented to provide
- In the year 2021, the responsibility of implementation of this scheme was given from the Ministry of Minority Affairs to the Ministry of Education.
Rights of minorities in constitution
- Under Article 30 of the Indian Constitution, all religious or linguistic minorities shall have the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.
- The protection under Article 30 is confined only to minorities (religious or linguistic) and cannot be extended to any class of citizens (as under Article 29).
Source – The Hindu
