GUWAHATI: The government-run Madrassas - the Islamic institutions of learning in Assam - will be shut down soon even as minority organizations cry foul over the ruling BJP government’s move and term it as an election gimmick to polarize voters ahead of the 2021 assembly elections.
According to a notification sent by the state secondary school education department to the Directorate of Education it was stated that the government has taken a decision to close down all the Madrassas in the state.
The notification further said that all the contract teachers of all Madrassas in Assam should be transferred to the normal higher secondary schools and the process for the same should be initiated at earliest.
“Madrassas were not in Assam, they were all over India. Suddenly they are closing down the Madrassas. They could have modernised the Madrassa education. It is a biased decision. BJP is a communal force, so before the election polarization is their priority. They very well know minority organizations will oppose the move which will give them the chance to polarize voters ahead of assembly elections,” Azizur Rehman, Adviser of All Minority Students’ Union told G Plus.
Assam’s education minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma, while answering a question on provincialization of Madrassas during a Cut Motion on the education department in Assam Assembly recently, had said that government Madrassas are being shut down from November. He added that the Assam government will only promote secular and modern education.
The government will not patronize any educational institutes that run on religious lines. “All madrassas and Sanskrit Tols located across the State will be closed from November this year. Hence, Madarssas won’t be provincialized; and it won’t be possible to appoint new Arabic teachers. But the privately-run ‘Kherasi Madrassas’ will continue,” Sarma said.
The minister had declared earlier that the Madrassa Board will be dissolved and the academics of the institutions will be handed over to the Board of Secondary Education.
In February 2020, in a significant decision, the Assam government had announced that the government is shutting all state-run Madrassas and Sanskrit Tols.
Sarma, at that time, said that it is not the government’s job to teach religion, religious scriptures, Arabic and other languages for religious purposes. The minister specifically mentioned that all the religious schools under the state government would be shut. The Madrassas run by mosques and Sanskrit schools run by non-government organizations will face no effect by the decision.
