Missing ‘Urdu’ on school seal, holiday shift trigger anger in Bihar’s Darbhanga
Parents say holiday switch made under current principal without any plausible reason
Darbhanga: The word “Urdu” is missing from the official seal of a local high school in Dighiar panchayat of Keoti block in Bihar, triggering a controversy.
Residents have also said that the school’s weekly holiday has been shifted from Friday to Sunday.
The institution has long been known as Uchch Madhyamik Vidyalaya Dighiar Urdu, with “Urdu” forming part of its identity. Villagers say they recently noticed that the school’s official seal no longer carries the word.
According to parents, the school had for years observed its weekly holiday on Friday, in keeping with local practice. They say the change was made under the current principal without any plausible reason.
Their objection is not just symbolic. The school building and its registered name still carry “Urdu.” So why, they ask, would the official seal drop it? Parents have called it an unexplained and unauthorised alteration and want it corrected, along with a broader review of the school’s documents, registration papers and other paperwork that may have been affected.
Principal Kalpana Pathak, who took charge of the school on July 21, 2025, has offered her own explanation. She said her appointment letter and other education department records list the school simply as “Uchch Madhyamik Vidyalaya Dighiar,” with “Urdu” appearing only above the name, not as part of the formal title. It was on this basis, she said, that she left “Urdu” off the official seal.
Pathak said if parents are unhappy and submit a formal application, she is open to having “Urdu” added back to the seal.
On the change in the weekly off-day, she said it is not a decision she has the authority to make on her own. She claimed she raised the issue with an official at the District Education Officer (DEO) level and was instructed to keep Sunday as the holiday and run classes on Friday instead. She added that if the department directs the school to restore Friday as the weekly holiday, she will comply, and noted that given the ongoing exam schedule, she has already flagged to officials the idea of closing the school on the Friday following the exams.
Two questions remain unresolved: how “Urdu” came to be dropped from the seal of a school whose name includes it, and who ordered the weekly holiday changed from Friday to Sunday.
