Directorate of Education (DoE) has directed the Delhi Minorities Commission (DMC) that Muslim teachers will not be allowed to go for Jumu'ah prayers during school hours.

According to the IANS report, Zaraful Islam Khan, DMC Chairman said that the education department of Delhi government wrote a written response that the teachers can't leave their classes and go for Jumu'ah prayers on Friday, as it would harm the interest of the students.

Home Ministry Rule of 1954

Earlier the teachers told DMC chairman that there is a union home ministry order of 1954 which says that employees can go for prayers after foregoing a certain amount from the salary, according to Khan's statement to IANS.

''We have written to the home ministry to know whether the rule is still applicable, the reply is yet to come," he added.

We spoke to the Muzaffar Hassan, principal of Jamia Senior Secondary School about this decision and here's what he shared:

The timings of Jumu'ah prayers vary from 12:00 pm to 02:00 pm every Friday and the teachers are usually free to go for prayers at this time. Generally, school teachers have the responsibility of teaching classes for 6 hours 20 minutes or so, in such cases, there should be some provisions in teachers' timetable.

When asked about what he has to say on DoE's directive on not allowing prayer breaks to Muslim teachers, he said, "If that's the case, Muslim teachers can compensate the classes in the next day if the students' interests are compromised.

Muslim teachers should either not be given the duty for that time period or the teachers should compensate it in the next day by taking more classes. - Muzaffar Hassan

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