The issue of teaching Sanskrit as a third language in government schools of Rajasthan has again become a cause of controversy. During the previous Congress government, the government schools where the system of teaching Urdu as the third language was started, now the BJP government has ordered to change it to Sanskrit. The Rajasthan Higher Secondary Education Department has issued an order to teach Sanskrit literature in the new education calendar from April 2025, instead of Urdu literature at Napasar’s Higher Secondary School.
Many social organizations and Urdu teachers have protested against this decision of the government. Earlier, orders were issued to teach Sanskrit instead of Urdu at Mahatma Gandhi Secondary School in Jaipur. Disputes have also arisen in Ajmer schools against this decision. BJP government education minister Madan Dilawar is trying to promote Sanskrit in place of Urdu.
Ashish Modi, director of the Department of Secondary Education, says that Sanskrit has been ordered to teach Sanskrit in schools where there are no students studying Urdu or where no Urdu is studying. The same student was studying Urdu at Napasar School in Bikaner, who was in class XII and is going to college this year. Now there is no other student to read Urdu, so it has been ordered to teach Sanskrit instead of Urdu there.
Meanwhile, the statement of Minister of State for Home Jawahar Singh Bedham is going viral on social media, in which he is seen saying that Urdu teachers were planted in schools with fake degrees. He also said that the previous Congress government deliberately implemented Urdu in schools instead of Sanskrit, which is now being corrected.