Want to bring uniformity: Himanta Biswa Sarma on closure of Madrasas in Assam

Guwahati (Assam) [India], October 14 (ANI): Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the state-run madrasas in Assam will either be converted into regular schools or they will be shut down, after teachers are transferred to schools, following a notification which will be released in November this year.
Sarma said that in order to bring uniformity, teaching 'Quran' at the cost of government exchequer could not be allowed to go on, as then provisions would be needed to made for religious education of other communities too.
"All State-run madrassas will be converted into regular schools or in certain cases teachers will be transferred to state-run schools and madrassas will be shut down. A notification will be released in November," Sarma told reporters here.
"In my opinion, teaching 'Quran' cannot happen at the cost of government money, if we have to do so then we should also teach both the Bible and Bhagavad Gita. We want to bring uniformity and stop this practice," he added.
Elaborating on the topic, Sarma said that the degree given in large numbers by the aforementioned Madrasas are creating a crisis in the job market too.
"There is another issue because these Madrasas give a particular degree, Government of Assam has declared this degree will be equivalent to Matriculation and Higher Secondary examination. That has created a huge impact because so many people are getting certificates after passing out from madrasas and they compete for jobs with other students who have passed matric or high secondary after hard work," Sarma said.
"So this equivalence problem has also created a lot of uneasiness among our students. Considering both the points of principle that we cannot teach religion from government money, so we are closing it and also from the point of view of academia that you cannot give equivalence to a normal maths, science with the study in Quran, you cannot give equivalence of degree. So with that point of view also we need to close the madrasas," he said.
"If people want to know Sufism and the contribution of Islam in Indian civilization, so all these things are already there in our educational system," he added.
The Minister had earlier also said that the state government will fight against any marriage which has been solemnised on the basis of fake identity/forgery. (ANI)