Madrasas To Shut Down In Assam; Bill Introduced In Assembly

Guwahati: Bills have been introduced in the Assam Assembly on Monday to close down more than 600 madrasas run by the state government. Congress and AIUDF strongly opposed the government’s move.

Assam Education and Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma introduced the bill in the assembly. “The objective to introduce the bill — the Assam Repealing bill 2020 would repeal of 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,” Sarma said.

According to the bill that was tabled on the opening day of the 3-day Winter Session of the assembly, said, “With the aim to provide exposure towards more subjects and enable greater flexibility with more frequent formative assessment for learning, a policy decision has been taken by the Government of Assam to convert all the provincialised and Private Madrassa educational institutions of the state into Upper primary, high school and higher secondary school (general) with effect from April 1 next year.”

“Once the Bill is passed (by the House), the practice of running madrasas by the government in Assam will come to an end, a practice which was started by the Muslim League government in pre-Independence Assam,” Sarma tweeted.

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