New Delhi: The government has decided to appoint 2,000 Urdu teachers in schools across the country from March to offset the shortfall due to which many parents have been sending their children to madrasas to learn the language.

The Human Resource Development Ministry's move is part of efforts to revise the Modern Indian Languages Scheme with a separate Urdu scheme given special focus, sources said.

They said recruitments would begin for Kendriya Vidyalayas and Navodaya Vidyalayas from March initially and continue till the end of the financial year.
"Urdu speakers have no option but to send their children to madrasas, where they are taught the language. Given a choice, they would be more than willing to send their children to mainstream schools.

Unfortunately, most mainstream schools do not teach Urdu alongside," a senior ministry official said. He said the appointments would, however, depend on number of students willing to learn Urdu in school.

There were around 4.5 crore speakers of Urdu in India, according to census data, which means 25 per cent of the population uses the language.

"The 25 per cent does not indicate Muslims alone, for there are others who are speaking and learning the language," the sources said.

Source : PTI