Education Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the state-run madrassas will be converted to general schools with no change of status, pay of the teaching and non-teaching staff.
AMN / Guwahati
Despite objection from a united opposition Assam Education Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma today tabled a Bill in the Legislative Assembly to abolish all state-run Madrassas by converting them into general schools from April 1 next year.
The legislation proposes to abolish the two existing Acts — The Assam Madrassa Education (Provincialisation) Act, 1995 and The Assam Madrassa Education (Provincialisation of Services of Employees and Re-Organisation of Madrassa Educational Institutions) Act, 2018.
“This bill is not to control and repeal the private Madrassas,” Mr Sarma said, adding inclusion of the word “private” in the ”statement of objects and reasons” of the bill was a mistake.
The Assam cabinet had on December 13 approved a proposal to close down all Madrassas and Sanskrit Tols (schools) however, the legislation brought in the assembly during the day did not contain anything related to the Sanskrit tols and the education minister also did not mention anything about it.
The minister said in the bill that all Madrassa institutes will be converted into upper primary, high and higher secondary schools with no change of status, pay, allowances and service conditions of the teaching and non-teaching staff.
There are 610 state-run Madrassas across Assam with the government spending ₹ 260 crore annually, Mr Sarma had said earlier.
In April 2018, the Education Minister had brought many private Madrassas under the government ambit by introducing The Assam Madrassa Education (Provincialisation of Services of Employees and Re-Organisation of Madrassa Educational Institutions) Act, 2018.
The BJP-led alliance-controlled Assam Assembly had enacted the law unanimously in 2018.
Talking to the media ahead of the commencement of the Winter Session, the Assam minister had earlier today said that once the bill is passed, the practice of running madrassa by the state government will come to an end. The practice was initiated by the Muslim League government in pre-Independence Assam, added Sarma.
In October, Sarma had announced that the Madrasa Board in Assam would be dissolved and all state-run madrasas would be turned into general schools.
He had further clarified that the government does not intend to shut down the private madrasas.
Sarma, who also holds the Finance and Health portfolios, had also announced that the Assam government would also close down the Sanskrit tols (schools).
As per Himanta Biswa Sarma, the decision of the government was based on research on madrasas.
“A survey conducted by a Gauhati University professor, who happens to be a Muslim, found that the parents and guardians of most of the students of the madrasas are not aware of the fact that their children are not taught the regular subjects but are imparted lessons mostly in theology.”
“The government-run madrasas in Assam would either be converted into regular schools or they would be closed down. Teachers would be transferred to general schools after issuance of a government notification next month,” Sarma had further told the media on October 17.
“In order to bring uniformity, teaching the Quran at the cost of government exchequer could not be allowed to continue,” he had added.
The Assam Cabinet, in its meeting chaired by Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, had on December 15 gave its go-ahead to the proposal of shutting down all government-run madrassas and Sanskrit tols (schools).