On Wednesday (13th December), the Department of School Education in Assam announced that 1281 Madrasa Education (ME) units in the state will no longer be madrasas and will be converted to regular Schools. SEBA (Board of Secondary Education Assam) has undertaken the task of transforming government and provincialised madrasas into conventional schools.
The Education Minister of Assam, Ranoj Pegu, posted a list of the concerned institutes from his X handle. He wrote in his post, “Consequent to the conversion of all Govt and Provincialised Madrasa into general schools under SEBA, the Department of School Education in Assam has changed the names of 1281 ME Madrasas into ME Schools by a notification today. Here is the link for the list of schools.”
A notification in this regard was published by the department on 13th December. According to this notification, the names of these institutes will be changed. The notification read, “As per the approval of the government on 4th December 2023, the nomenclature of the listed upper primary schools “M.E. Madrasa” under the Directorate of Elementary Education, Assam shall be known as “M.E. Schools” with immediate effect.”
This decision by the Himanta Biswa Sarma government in Assam is aimed at bringing uniformity and inclusivity within the education system of the state. CM Himanta Biswa Sarma has repeatedly said that madrasas in the state need to be modified into regular schools to bring the students in Madrasas to mainstream education.