By a Staff Writer
Bengaluru: The Karnataka Government has, through a circular, allowed Urdu-medium schools to have half a day leave on Fridays and full day weekly holiday on Sundays along all other medium Government schools. Several representations were made by Muslims recently to revert to previous schedule of half day leave for Thursday and holiday for Friday. The Urdu schools had varying weekly holiday schedules in different parts of the State so far. The previous schedule (Thursday-Friday) would have taken the Govt Urdu Schools out of the domain of monitoring for four days as they would have been closed on Thursdays and Fridays and the Government inspectors would have their holidays on Saturdays and Sundays.
The Government however acted partly wisely by declaring half a day closure on Fridays and weekly off on Sundays as is the norm with other Govt Schools. But even this arrangement is flawed. There is likely to be more absenteeism on Saturdays in these Govt Urdu School teachers who would like to extend their weekend thereby effectively impacting the teaching for two and half days in these schools.
It would have been sufficient if the lunch recess on Fridays would have been extended by 45 minutes aligning it with the Juma congregational schedule of the nearest mosque. But Urdu Teachers Association thought it prudent to demand a full-day closure. After all there are hundreds of English medium high schools managed by Muslims in each of the cities in the State. Don’t they function full day on Fridays? asked a participant in a community conclave. This is yet another example of the community activists giving precedence to sentimental issues over substantive issues.
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