JEDDAH, 27 May 2005 — India is planning to start Kendriya Vidyalay (central school) in the Gulf region to meet the growing demands of the Indian community, said Minister of State for Human Resources Development M.A.A. Fatmi here yesterday. Fatmi was here to perform Umrah.

The minister said that with the increase in the Indian workforce in the Gulf areas there was a pressing need for more schools. Though the existing schools do cater to the numbers – the sheer quantity affects quality. With more schools, both quantity and quality, could be assured.

“The Ministry of HRD has been planning to start self-financed central schools in the Gulf on an experimental basis to fulfill the educational need of the non-resident Indian students,” Fatmi said.

The HRD Ministry has sought suggestions from Indian missions on this ambitious project, the minister said.

To begin with, three schools will be opened in the Kingdom: One near Riyadh, Dammam and one between Jeddah and Makkah to cater to the students from the adjoining areas.

The Indian mission is trying to get the clearance from the concerned Saudi departments. “These schools will provide quality education and ease pressure on the International Indian schools in the Kingdom which on an average have the strength of about 10,000 students each,” the minister said.

Some of the salient features of the proposed school will be its trained and professional teachers, better student-teacher ratio and well-quipped laboratories — all these at a reasonable cost, the minister said.

Fatmi said he has already discussed the issue with Human Resources Development Minister Arjun Singh, whose response “was very encouraging.”

Fatmi, who lived in Saudi Arabia between 1982-89, said that he understands the educational requirements of the large Indian community in the Kingdom. “Opening a few central school won’t be enough, so we are planning to start 20-30 open school centers also across the Kingdom to provide education to those who live in remote areas,” he said.

Regarding streamlining madrasa education in India, the minister said that he has proposed to introduce 30 vocational training courses for madrasa students to provide them with additional skills and to make them more relevant to the job-market.

Fatmi defended the government’s recent decision allowing 50% reservation for Muslims in the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), maintaining its identity as a religious minority institution. He added, the order has rectified the damage done by former HRD Minister M.M. Joshi who had started the move to bring AMU under the ambit of Common Entrance Test (CET), in “violation” of the provisions under which the minority university was set up.

Earlier, Consul General Ausaf Sayeed said that India and Saudi Arabia have agreed in principle to enhance exchange visits between higher education officials of the two countries. The two nations also agreed to encourage cooperation in the fields of scientific research in general and scientific applications in particular between universities and research centers Sayeed said.

This was a part of the MOU signed during the April 13 visit of India’s Finance Minister P. Chidambaram. Some Saudi businessmen had raised the issue of academic collaboration between India and the Kingdom with Chidambaram, Sayeed said.

An MOU will be signed soon between India and Saudi Arabia for academic collaboration. Jamia Milia Islamia, Delhi, and Osmania University, Hyderabad, meanwhile have shown willingness to enroll Saudi students in their various courses till such an accord is reached.

The Association of Indian Universities (AIU) which is responsible for establishing equivalence of university degrees has recognized 12-year general secondary education certificate of the Ministry of Education, Saudi Arabia, as equivalent to Plus 2 level qualification of an Indian Board of school examination, the consul general said.

For NRI students, Osmania University, Jamia-Milia Islamia, and Maulana Azad National Urdu University will start conducting examinations here from this academic year. These universities have also agreed to enroll NRI students through the Internet, said Sayeed.

The consul general also discussed, the possibilities to start conducting examinations of Calicut University in the Kingdom for a large number of Kearlites, with Kerala’s Education Minister E.T. Bashir, who assured him of a decision soon.