Guwahati: The Assam government introduced a bill on Monday (December 28) to abolish all state madrassas and convert them into general schools as of April 1, 2021. The Minister of Education, Himanta Biswa Sarma, introduced the first day the Assam, 2020 repeal bill of the assembly’s three-day winter session.
The bill to abolish all state madrassas and convert them into general schools was introduced despite a united opposition raising objections against it.
The bill proposes to abolish the two existing laws: the Assam Madrassa Education (Provincialization) Act, 1995 and the Assam Madrassa Education Act (Provincialization of Employee Services and Reorganization of Madrassa Educational Institutions), 2018 .
Introducing the bill, the presented Himanta Biswa Sarma is quoted by PT as saying: “This bill is not to control and repeal private madrassas.” He added that the inclusion of the word “private” in the bill’s ‘Object and motive statement’ was a mistake.
According to Sharma, all institutes of the madrasah will be converted into upper primary, upper secondary and upper secondary schools without change of status, salary, allowances and conditions of service of teaching and non-teaching staff.
The minister had reported that there are 610 state madrassas in Assam.
Earlier, on December 13, Assam’s cabinet had approved a proposal to close all government-run Sanskrit madrasas and tols (schools) in the state.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary had said that the BJP-led government in the state would introduce a bill to this effect during the next winter session of the state Assembly.
In particular, the winter session of the Assam Legislative Assembly began on December 28.
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