SHUBHANGI SHIFA
Ranchi, Aug 1: With the schools all over the state changing names and schedules in Muslim majority areas, three schools in Ranchi’s Kanke, Ormanjhi and Bedo also followed and changed their names.
This means that the three general schools were converted into Urdu schools without permission from the Department of School Education and Literacy.
However, after the intervention of the local authorities and officials from the DSE’s office, the schools were once again forced to change their names to the original ones.
District Superintendent of Education Kamala Singh, while talking to lagatar24.com correspondent said, “There are a total of 54 official Urdu schools in the district. Apart from these, three in Kanke, Ormanjhi and Bedo had changed their names and were staying shut on Friday, while operating on Sundays under pressure from locals.”
“After the intervention, all schools have once again changed their names once again and were open last Friday. These schools also changed their names under pressure from the locals in those areas,” Singh added.
He further said that to make sure that the schools were open on Friday and closed on Sunday, officials had been deputed to monitor each of the three schools.
Education minister Jagarnath Mahato in this regard had earlier said, “In any case, the government rule will apply. General schools will be closed on Sundays only. They will be open on Fridays.”
Meanwhile, Education Secretary Rajesh Sharma has said, “Action will be taken against those who stop studies in normal schools. It will be considered as obstructing government work. FIRs will be lodged against such people.”
Notably, in Jharkhand, a total of 519 schools in Muslim-majority areas were closed by the villagers on Friday instead of Sunday. The education department had submitted this information to the government.
The report regarding the same states that after administrative pressure, 469 of these schools have now started staying closed on Sundays.
However, even now 50 schools are shut on Friday only due to pressure from locals. If we consider the matter of converting general schools into Urdu schools, then ‘Urdu’ has been added to the names of 427 general schools in the state.
Deoghar has the maximum number of 156 such schools in which Urdu has been added. Urdu was added to the names of 88 schools in Godda, 67 in Giridih and 50 in Palamu. The word Urdu has still not been removed from 57 schools. According to the report, normal schools in Palamu, Jamtara and Godda are still not allowed to open on Fridays.
