Assam Repealing Act 2020 Receives Governor's Assent, Himanta Biswa says Historic & Progressive

The Assam government on December 2020 passed a bill at the Assam Assembly to convert the state-run Madrassas into general educational institutions.
Assam Repealing Act 2020 Receives Governor's Assent, Himanta Biswa says Historic & Progressive

GUWAHATI: The Assam Repealing Act 2020 has received the assent of Assam's Governor Prof. Jagdish Mukhi's assent and has come into effect.

With this now all the state-run Madrassas will now function as the general educational institutions.

Taking to Twitter, Assam Education Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said, "Historic & Progressive! Glad that The Assam Repealing Act 2020 has recieved the assent of Hon Governor & has come into effect. Madrassa Edu Provincialisation Act, 1995 and Assam Madrassa Education Act, 2018 stand repealed. All govt Madrassas will run as general education inst."

The bill was passed by the state cabinet at the Assam Assembly to convert the state-run Madrassas into general educational institutions.

Earlier, while presenting the bill, the legislators from Congress and AIUDF (All India United Democratic Front) staged a walkout.

They also raised slogans demanding that the Bill must be placed before a Select Committee of the House.

Speaking to the house, Assam State Minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma said "An Islamic scholar from Assam has found in his study that 82 per cent of the students studying in madrassas prefer studying in general schools. This is because these students have ambitions to hold responsible and high posts in society in different professions."

The Minister asserted, "These converted madrassas will now function under the SEBA(Board of Secondary Education, Assam). Within two years, enrollment will also go up in these converted educational institutions, where the curricula will get modernized. Moreover, new teachers will be also recruited. Though there will be no more classes on theological subjects, those on functional Arabic languages will continue to be taught in these schools."

Meanwhile, AIUDF legislator Hafiz Bashir Ahmed (Qasimi) pointed out, "The madrassas in Assam have an enrollment of about 1.20 lakh students. Prior to the introduction of the Bill, the government should have taken into confidence all stakeholders. Since that has not been done, the Bill should be sent to a select committee of the Assembly."

On the other hand, leader of Opposition Debabrata Saikia as well as Sukur Ali, Wazed Ali and Rockibul Hussain (all of INC) demanded that the Bill must be sent to a select committee of the House. They also said that discussions must be held with all stakeholders prior to taking any decision on the madrassas. Nurul Huda of the same party said, "The status quo must be maintained with respect to the madrassas."

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