BANGALORE, NOV 6: It's a three-year-old Central Government scheme meant to foster a certain degree of rationality and secular spirit in institutions dedicated to imparting religious education the madrasas and Sanskrit pathshalas. A large amount has been spent on introducing general subjects in these institutions and appointing teachers for the purpose. It now transpires that all these students also attend regular schools and have no need for such lessons. This has left the teachers with virtually no work.Three years ago, the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development started a scheme for modernisation of madrasas and pathshalas. It envisaged the teaching of subjects like science, mathematics and social science. In the case of madrasas, English was added to the list.The Government had set aside over Rs 2 crore for the project initially. In 1997 in Karnataka, 15 teachers were appointed for the Sanskrit pathshalas at a monthly salary of Rs 3,500 and nine for madrasas at Rs 2,500. This year, thevacancies under the scheme have increased to 100 for the pathshalas and 119 for the madrasas. This will cost the Central Government about Rs 70 lakh additionally towards salary and a few more lakhs for science kits, bought by these institutions for Rs 4,000 each.However, most of the pathshalas and madrasas which have applied for teachers work just four hours a day from 7.30 am to 9.30 am and 5.30 pm to 7.30 pm. In between, students attend regular schools. ``The children come to these institutions only for religious learning; their general education is taken care of by the schools,'' said an official at the office of the Commissioner of Public Instruction. According to sources in the department, teachers appointed last year neither had any work to do, nor were they qualified. The basic qualification for a teacher in the Sanskrit pathshalas is SSLC and Sahitya, an undergraduate-level in Sanskrit, and PUC and Faukhania, Sahitya's equivalent in Urdu, for a teacher in a madrasa. ``How can an SSLC personteach all these subjects effectively, that too when the children are already attending regular schools,'' asks an official in the Urdu Department of the Commissioner's office. According to him, not one of the 119 institutions is permanent. The same is the case with the pathshalas. Barring a few maths, over 90 per cent of the 100 pathshalas which have been allotted teachers do not have full-time students. ``Some of the teachers thus sent have been reduced to teaching Sanskrit, not the subject they have been appointed to teach, because they have no students,'' asks a teacher in the Sanskrit Department.Then why did the Public Instruction Department appoint so many teachers? That is because they cannot turn down applications from schools valid on technical grounds. The HRD Ministry had declared that any institution getting government aid and has been in existence for three years was eligible to apply for the grant. Till date, nearly Rs 1 crore has been spent by the Ministry in Karnataka alone.
