The madrassas try to increase their academic excellence by ameliorating their faculty quality: the general subjects are taught by teachers with a Board education background, whereas some madrasas also have the practice of hiring guest lecturers from various board curriculum schools. As such, it can be deduced that the madrassa students do not face serious discrimination from the academic orientation perspective. In fact, the discrepancies can be compared to exactly those faced by government schools in towns and villages in relation to the city schools. The NEP 2010 has also contributed much to this aspect: under the new policy, having female teaching staff has been made mandatory in order to better prepare the students for the bigger society. Previously, the madrassas encouraged recruiting only male staff since madrassas are predominantly united, with co-ed madrassas being a recent trend. According to the interviewee, the main reasons behind their sense of alienation remains the environmental and orientation factors: the atmosphere of the madrassas, the special mode of attire, the different attitudes (most of the madrassa students are groomed to greet in Arabic manners) etc. The madrassas offer a restricted atmosphere compared to other institutions. There are limited opportunities for the students to comingle with the outside world. Few madrassas provide limited options for refreshment: weekly day outs, shopping sprees, sports, newspapers and magazine (which are regulated e.g. the entertainment pages of the newspapers are not provided). These problems are more dire in qawmi madrassas, where the whole environment is quite conservative and to some extent extremist. According to the Aliya madrasza students, the qawmi institutions do not offer a general education, an approach which fosters extremist elements. The teachers are less liberal than those in Aliya institutions as well, grooming the pupils into extremist mindset. However, the greatest sense of alienation appears to originate from the society. Often the parents discriminate between their children while deciding to put them in a madrassa education. The driving force is not always giving a religious education, but a sense that a particular child is weak or less gifted and hence unfit for a mainstream competitive education. This leads the child grow up with a sense of resentment and grudge which in many cases develops into a conservative and reserved posture. The long standing political implications deep rooted in the society also work to alienate the students. Madrassa students always sense a feeling of disintegration: they feel persecuted that the Page | 42