From July, Sanskrit, yoga in Uttarakhand madrasas

Neena Sharma 

Tribune News Service 

Dehradun, June 23 

The Uttarakhand Government plans to introduce computer science, yoga and Sanskrit as subjects in all 297 registered madrasas from the academic session that starts from July, Minister for Welfare of Minorities Yashpal Arya has said. 

“The introduction of these subjects will benefit the Muslim students immensely,” said Arya. Soon after the BJP came to power in the hill state last year, there was a clamour for introducing Sanskrit, yoga and computer science as subjects to modernise madrasas. 

The proposal was given a push by Arya, who left the Congress to join the BJP before the Assembly elections last year. The proposal was then approved by Chief Minister TS Rawat. 

Opposition parties are, however, doubtful whether the move would have any positive impact. They believe madrasas are already starved of funds and would face difficulty in hiring teachers.  

“The madrasas (funded by the government) find it difficult to pay the salaries of teachers. The government recently cleared the salaries pending for the past six months,” said Congress’ Suryakant Dhasmana.

Muslim scholars said it would be a tall order to bring students to learn Sanskrit. “It needs to be seen how much acceptability the new subjects will find with parents and their wards,” said Akhlaque Ahmed, Deputy Registrar, Madrasas Board.