JAIPUR: A govt senior secondary school in Bikaner has become the second institute in Rajasthan to receive a communication from the education department to replace Urdu with Sanskrit as a third language from the new academic session commencing in April. Director of secondary education Ashish Modi’s Feb 14 order came within days of the school education department directing Mahatma Gandhi Govt School at Jaipur’s RAC Battalion to and introduce Sanskrit and stop Urdu classes, citing “low enrolment”. He was unavailable for comment.
Amid growing resentment against the twin orders, a fresh controversy broke Monday over minister of state for home Jawahar Singh Bedham purportedly saying in a viral video that many Urdu teachers in the state secured jobs with fake degrees. “The previous (Congress) govt removed Sanskrit teachers and deployed Urdu teachers in their place. We don’t know Urdu, and no one even studies that subject, which is why we will discontinue the posts of Urdu teachers and provide the kind of education that people want here,” Bedham alleges in the video from a recent event held in Bharatpur.
Urdu teachers took exception to what they said were “baseless and irresponsible” remarks by the minister.
“Terming degrees of Urdu teachers ‘fake’ without an investigation is wrong. Also, the allegation against the previous govt of appointing Urdu teachers against Sanskrit posts is false. The minister is trying to mobilise the majority community by targeting the linguistic minority. This is politics of hatred,” Amin Kayamkhani, president of the Rajasthan Urdu Teachers’ Association, said.
In Bikaner, the move to replace Urdu with Sanskrit at Napasar Sinthal Road Govt Senior Secondary School is based on the area’s needs, officials said. “A lone Class 12 student studies Urdu. In Class 11, there’s nobody with Urdu as third language. This is reason why it is being discontinued,” a teacher said.