Uttar Pradesh to have 10 new Sanskrit schools

To promote Sanskrit education in Uttar Pradesh, the state government has decided to open 10 new Sanskrit secondary schools. The Education Department has identified the districts where these schools will be established, and the government has allocated Rs 100 crore in the state budget 2023-24 for this purpose. Additionally, Rs 10 crore will be distributed as scholarships among the students studying in these schools. The districts where the new Sanskrit secondary schools will be set up are Varanasi, Rae Bareli, Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar, Moradabad, Shamli, Jalaun, Etah, Amethi, and Hardoi.

After receiving in-principle approval from the state government, the directorate of school education has sent a request for allocation of funds for the construction of the new schools. In addition to the secondary schools, the government is also planning to establish senior Sanskrit secondary schools in five districts: Gorakhpur, Prayagraj, Ayodhya, Chitrakoot, and Mathura, which are home to important pilgrimage centers in the state. The Principal Secretary of the Education Department has written to the Collectors of these districts, asking them to identify land for new Sanskrit colleges.

The government hopes that these initiatives will enhance Sanskrit education and attract more students to study the language. Meanwhile, in a separate development, the Uttar Pradesh Secondary Education Board (UPSEB) has taken action against 67 schools in the state where proxy candidates were caught taking high school and intermediate board exams. A total of 120 impersonators were caught and arrested, and legal action has been taken against all of the schools that violated the prescribed conditions for recognition and committed irregularities in the conduct of examinations. The board has initiated the process of withdrawing the recognition of these schools.