Himanta Biswa Sarma govt in Assam converts over 1200 Madrasas into general schools as part of promise to close ally

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has proved what he said in March this year by converting 1,281 government and provincialised Madrasas across 31 districts his state into general schools under the Board of Secondary Education, Assam, or SEBA. The change was announced by Assam education minister Ranoj Pegu on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Consequent to conversion of all government and provincialised Madrasa’s into general schools under SEBA, the Department of School Education Assam has changed the names of 1,281 ME Madrasas into ME School by a notification today,” wrote Pegu. The Assam education minister also shared the list of 1,281 schools whose names have been changed.

Consequent to conversion of all Govt and Provincialised Madrasa’s into general schools under SEBA, @SchoolEdnAssam has changed the names of 1281 ME Madrasas into ME School by a notification today. Here is the link for the list of schools. @himantabiswa @Samagra_Assam…

— Ranoj Pegu (@ranojpeguassam) December 13, 2023

The notification read, “As per approval of Govt. E-file No. 392611, dtd. 04/12/2023 , the nomenclature of the following Upper Primary Schools ‘M.E. Madrassa’ under Directorate of Elementary Education, Assam shall be known as ‘M.E. School’ with immediate effect. During a rally in Karnataka in March this year, Sarma declared that his government had closed 600 Madrasas and intends to close all Madrasas because he preferred educational institutions over Islamic institutions. In January 2021, the Assam government had passed a legislation, paving way for all government-run Madrasas in the state to convert to regular of general schools under the state board. The Act aimed at abolishing the Assam Madrassa Education (Provincialization) Act, 1995 and the Assam Madrassa Education (Provincialization of Services of Employees and Re-Organisation of Madrassa Educational Institutions) Act, 2018. As per 2021 data by Assam Madrassa Teachers’ Association (AMTA), around 1,40,000 students were enrolled in more than 600 government-run madrasas in Assam. With inputs from agencies