Govt plan to shut madrassas, Sanskrit centres opposed

GUWAHATI: The Assam Madrassa Coordination Committee has opposed the state government’s move to shut madrassas, along with Sanskrit tols (Sanskrit learning centres), saying they teach all modern subjects according to the syllabus approved by the board.
The committee, an apex body of state madrassa teachers, asserted that the curriculum in the government-recognised madrassas was modern and had been approved by recognised education boards. They disagreed with the state education minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma, who had recently said the government was not supposed to fund religious educational institutions.
The committee members further stated that spiritualism and theology were only a part of what was taught in the madrassas. Over 70,000 students study in about 706 madrassas of the state, which include government-aided and venture institutions.
“The established and provincialised madrassas in Assam are guided by policies framed by the state government. Along with modern and general education, Arabic literature is taught to students in madrassas, where spiritual education is imparted for holistic development of students. There is no harm in it,” Fazal Uddin Bhasani, coordinator of the committee, told the media here on Monday.
Bhasani said Himanta’s announcement came as a jolt for the Assam’s madrassas, many of which were established during the British era, especially since the state had merged the state directorate of madrassa education with the directorate of secondary education in 2017.
Last week, Himanta had said the madrassas and Sanskrit tols, which run on government funds, would be shut in the next 3-4 months, following which these would be converted into high and higher secondary schools.
On Himanta’s remarks that madrassas were imparting religious education, chief coordinator of the committee, Farid Uddin Ahmed Choudhury said students there were taught mathematics, science, English, social science, Hindi, Assamese, computer science, Urdu and Bengali among other subjects, according to the syllabus approved by the Board of Secondary Education, Assam (Seba). He added that theology lessons imparted through Arabic was only a part of madrassa education. “Most importantly, Assamese is mandatory in the madrassas of Barak Valley, where predominantly, Bengali-speaking people live,” he said.