The state-run madrasas in Assam will either be converted into regular schools or they will be closed down, said state Education Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. This decision has come after teachers were transferred to state government schools, a notification regarding the same will be released in November this year.
Sarma said he wants to bring uniformity in education. The government is bearing the cost of teaching ‘Quran’ and this will not continue. If so, then provisions would be needed to make for the religious education of other communities too.
“All State-run madrassas will be converted into regular schools or in certain cases teachers will be transferred to state-run schools and madrassas will be shut down. A notification will be released in November,” said Sarma.
The Minister also added, “In my opinion, teaching ‘Quran’ cannot happen at the cost of government money, if we have to do so then we should also teach both the Bible and Bhagavad Gita. We want to bring uniformity and stop this practice.”
The degrees provided by the madrasa in large numbers are creating a crisis in the job market too.
Sarma mentioned, “There is another issue because these Madrasas give a particular degree, the Government of Assam has declared this degree will be equivalent to Matriculation and Higher Secondary examination. That has created a huge impact because so many people are getting certificates after passing out from madrasas and they compete for jobs with other students who have passed matric or high secondary after hard work.”
“So this equivalence problem has also created a lot of uneasiness among our students. Considering both the points of principle that we cannot teach religion from government money, so we are closing it and also from academia that you cannot give equivalence to a normal maths, science with the study in Quran, you cannot give equivalence of degree. So with that point of view also we need to close the madrasas. If people want to know Sufism and the contribution of Islam in Indian civilization, so all these things are already there in our educational system,” he added.
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Shutting down of the state-run madrassas was taken during a discussion on budgetary allocation for the education department when some legislators were demanding provincial station of madrasas. Besides, Madarsa Sanskrit schools will also be closed as the government decides not to fund any institutes that use public money to exercise religious education.
Assam has 614 recognised madrasas, and 17 are Urdu medium.