The Uttar Pradesh government will introduce textbooks from the National Council of Educational Research and Training in madrasas across the state. It will also make mathematics and science compulsory at the intermediate level from the next academic year, PTI reported.

The aim is to make students in madrasas more competitive, said Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma.

The NCERT is an apex academic organisation for school education in India. The state government said the NCERT books will bring the syllabus at these schools on the same level as those in different state educational systems. It will not affect the madrasas’ religious curriculum.

“We are in the process of standardising and integrating the syllabus, especially for subjects like science, mathematics and English,” Registrar of the UP Madrasa Shiksha Parishad Rahul Gupta told the Hindustan Times.

In August, the state government had launched a portal of the UP Madrassa Board, and asked all Islamic institutions to upload information about their managing committees, teachers and students on it.

On March 19, when the Adityanath government came to power in the state, it rolled out its agenda to modernise madrasas. It made provisions in its 2017-’18 Budget towards imparting modern education in recognised madrasas, the Business Standard reported.