Congress slams disbanding of Madrassa Directorate

BY OUR STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, July 6: The Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) has expressed strong reaction over the State Government’s decision of disbanding the State Madrassa Directorate and hand over the academic part of it to the Directorate of Secondary Education.

APCC spokesperson Imdad Hussain in a statement the students belonging to minority community would be badly affected due to this decision.

He said that this move of the State government is a violation of the ‘educatiol provision of the minorities’ laid down by the Constitution of India.

Regarding the government decision, Education Minister Himta  Biswa Sarma earlier had said, “To mainstream Madrasa education, we are disbanding the Madrasa Education directorate and making it part of the Secondary Education directorate.”

“The Madrasa Board will be dissolved and the academic part will be handed over to the Board of Secondary Education,” he had said.

Sarma’s announcement came a little over five months after he had asked madrasas to stop remaining shut on Fridays and shift their weekly off-day uniformly with other educatiol institutions to Sunday.

In December, as he made that announcement, Sarma had also drawn flak for saying that madrassas remain closed on Fridays in Pakistan and Bangladesh, and not in India.

Regarding the directive of government of keeping the madrassas open on Friday, Hussain said that it has hut the religious sentiment of the minority community.

Assam had set up the Madrasa Education Board in 1934, with nine schools under it. After Independence, it was remed as State Madrasa Education Board, Assam, and has over 700 madrassas under it.