Mumbai : Only Marathi schools in Muslim dominated districts will have the facility to teach Urdu from the new academic year, education minister Vinod Tawde has said.
The minorities development department had declared last month that all the Marathi schools would have facility to teach Urdu as an attempt to bring the minorities into the mainstream. But, Tawde said that the decision would be implemented part by part.
“Implementing the decision all across the state simultaneously would be strenuous for the school education department. Hence, it has been decided that the implementation of the decision would be initiated with the Muslim dominated districts this academic year,” Tawde told reporters during his weekly media interaction here on Wednesday.
It may be recalled that when the minorities development minister Eknath Khadse had spoken of his plan to teach Urdu in Marathi schools just after coming to power, the Shiv Sena, who was not the part of the government then had opposed the decision. Shiv Sena leader Diwakar Raote, who is now the transport minister, had presented Khadse with a green skull cap back then to mark their protest of the plan.
“We have received the detailed proposal from the minorities affairs department. We are considering it seriously. But, since the Urdu teachers are not available in sufficient numbers, it is difficult to implement the decision in all the schools simultaneously,” Tawde said.
