State education minister of Assam, Himanta Biswa Sharma announced that that the state government will close down all government run madrassas along with Sanskrit tolls in the state. 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. There are 614 government madrassas in Assam and about 900 private madrassas, almost all of which are run by Jamiat Ulama, while there are about 100 government Sanskrit tols and over 500 private tols. The government spends about Rs 3 crore to Rs 4 crore on madrassas in the state and about Rs 1 crore on Sanskrit tols annually.
About two years back in 2018, the state government had scrapped the two controlling boards — State Madrassa Education Board and Assam Sanskrit Board — and brought the madrassas under the Secondary Board of Education Assam (Seba) and the Sanskrit tols under Kumar Bhaskar Varma Sanskrit and Ancient Studies University to introduce modern education to learners to bring them into the mainstream.
· Madrassas are educational institutions where the Quran and the Islamic sacred law is taught along with mathematics, grammar, poetry and history. According to a report published, the Indian government reports that 4 percent of Muslim students attend madrassas in the country full-time.
What does the Constitution say?
Article 29 states that “any section of citizens residing in the territory of India or any part thereof having a distinct language, script or culture of its own shall have the right to conserve the same”.
Article 30 of the Constitution of India grants minorities the right to establish and administer educational institutions. It protects both religious and linguistic minorities.
Ø In the 2002 case of TMA Pai Foundation & Ors v. State of Karnataka & Ors, an 11 judge Supreme Court bench considered the scope of the right of minorities under Article 30(1) read with Article 29(2) of the Constitution.
· The court ruled that the right under Article 30 is not absolute and that the government can impose legal and regulatory measures while granting aid to minority institutions, for ensuring that requisite educational standards are maintained.
Ø Earlier this year, the Supreme Court upheld the Constitutional validity of the West Bengal Madrasah Commission Act 2008, which empowered a commission to nominate teachers for aided madrassas in West Bengal.