Giridih, Oct. 6: There are six high schools in the township area of Giridih offering Urdu as a subject to over 2,000 students. But only two have Urdu teachers.

The remaining four, including two girls’ schools, do not have a single teacher of the subject. “The posts are lying vacant for the past three to ten years,” said Abdul Majeed Alam, the lone Urdu teacher at HE High School.

“The state’s and the Centre’s lack of interest in promoting the language is in sharp contrast with the Prime Minister’s much touted 15-point action programme to promote Urdu,” he added.

The six schools offering Urdu as a subject to over 2,000 Muslim boys and girls are H.E. High School, Sir JC Bose Girls’ High School, Makatpur High School, Zila High School, Pachamba High School and Girls’ High School, Pachamba.

Each school is supposed to have an Urdu teacher, but H.E. High School and Pachamba High School have one each.

Sir JC Bose Girls’ High School has 800 minority students but it hasn’t had an Urdu teacher since October, 2008. The Girls’ High School, Pachamba, has been without an Urdu teacher for the past three years, while Zila School hasn’t had one for the ten years.

“In the absence of Urdu teachers, minority students have almost stopped taking admission to Makatpur and Zila high schools,” said Imtiyazuddin, the Urdu teacher of Pachamba High School.

District education officer Ratan Kumar Singh said: “We have informed the higher authorities about the crisis and how it was affecting minority students in the district.”