Religions unite in tainting young minds?

From an article:"A for Arjun, B for Brahma, G for Ganesh, H for Hanuman…That is how the students of Saraswasti Shishu Mandir learn the alphabet. These schools are run by Vidya Bharti — an RSS organisation.
“Ram Pujan is held at 8315 villages in Kerala, in Bengal in another 5516. In which state are more pujas held?” is one question and another is, “If someone reads 110 Ramayan chaupals in a day then in how many days will he complete 12,980?”. These are some questions in Shishu Mandir textbooks .
“Akbar has been criticised for starting Din-e-Illahi and condemned for having non-Muslim wives and non-Muslim courtesans. Hindu kings in general broke agreements and provoked Muslim kings to war”. This is course material of a book in Jammat-e-Islami taught at madrasahs."

First of, lets recognize the fact that not all schools out there are out to produce future doctors, engineers, journalists and other white collar professionals.

Madrassas exist to impart the knowledge of the quoran. ved-pathshalas exist to impart the knowledge of the vedas. Are there any christian schools that only impart the teachings of the bible? Let us throw that into the potpourri too. The aim of such schools might be to produce people learned in the quoran, vedas and the bible, so that the passouts can assist in the practice & spread of the religion.

Now let us see both sides of the coin. do we need individuals who are trained in a single school of thought throughout childhood? Especially if the exclusive school of thought is a religious one? If there has ever been a need to exercise religious tolerance and equality, it is now. Yes, all religions teach its followers to show tolerance to other religions. but do all religions preach equality? Hardly. It may be dependent on a particular school, on how much they play down this factor or hype it up. Therein lies the first danger. Next, can an appreciation for other religions truly come about because your religious text says so? A hindu studying the vedas with other hindus, can he look to a muslim as not a man from mars, having spent his entire childhood among hindus? And vice-versa? Herein comes the second danger, of ghettoisation. So do we need preists, imams and fathers who cannot see beyond their own religion? How will such a person respond to the country's call of religious harmony, if it calls for treating other religions with equal respect?

Now the other side. Eliminating all religious references from syllabi. We dont want individuals to scoff at religious people and their customs. For all the politically incorrect connotations that this may bring up, we do need to connect back with our roots and preserve the elements that has sustained us for the last 3000(?) years. We dont want individuals who blindly believe that everything given in their books is necessarily correct, or western ideals are superior to native ideals. It is this very lack of sensitization to religion that has bred an intellectual divide between leftist thinkers and the rightists. Without a centrist school of thought and educated people in conflict over the various dichotomies, they find themselves either vigourously agreeing with the right-wingers or disagreeing with them(leftists! ). Their culture is a myraid of vague customs where the central philosophy is lost.

So while its important to have madrassas and ved-pathshalas, and certainly undemocratic to shut them, it is important that their syllabi be sanctioned by some authority figure/body, so the half-truths and falseties can be purged. It is important that even these schools include extra-curricular activities such as interaction with people from other schools, lectures, discussions and debates on other religions.

Indian syllabi has no mention of philosophy, except of socrates as a wise man who was murdered by religious bigots. All kids know the basic story of ramayan and mahabharat. But can they tell the connotations behind the various incidents in the epics? Just a few days back, there was a question on why Ram asked Sita to give a proof of her chastity. More often than not, while the leftists cry hoarse over women's inequality and the rightist cry hoarse over the need to preserve the "nari samman" over this, the underlying concept of the king not being a autocrat, but a subject to the people's will is lost! So's the underlying concept that the king must be free of moral stains. Two things our politicians could highly do with! Whats more, this incident seems to have been inserted

I can only conclude that far from this policy of religious desentization, even secular schools need to inculcate religious philosophy in their syllabi. make it an pass/not pass graded course, since the argument of increasing burden on children is quite correct. you could start the subject from class V onwards upto class X. students would not have exams but be asked to present weekly reports. over a period of five years, students could be given much more than just an intro to religious studies. i believe this'll lead to a more wholesome syllabi than what exists now.