Assam: CM Himanta Biswa Sarma Directs Officials To Convert Madrassas Into General Schools

To implement the decision of the previous Sarbananda Sonowal led government, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday (18 May) directed the officials to immediately initiate the process of transition of dissolved Madrassa to general schools.

The Chief Minister while giving a direction to immediately initiate the process of transition of dissolved Madrassa to general schools while taking a comprehensive review of the functioning of the Education Department in presence of Education Minister Ranoj Pegu and Finance Minister Ajanta Neog.

He also asked the officials to ensure recruitment of teachers on priority basis particularly in provincialised and government schools and to meet the periodic gap, reports The Economic Times.

In December 2020, amid protests by the Opposition legislators, the Assam Assembly passed the Assam Repealing Bill 2020, that abolishes 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.

The bill was enacted to scrap government funding for madrassas, and mentioned that the existing over 620 madrassas would be converted to general schools by 1 April 2021.

The then Education and Finance Minister of Assam and present CM of Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma, who introduced the bill said that bill was brought to make the academic environment of the state as "secular".

He also said that the state government had been spending Rs 260 crore annually for running the madrasas and "the government cannot spend public money for religious teaching".