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Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe to poobalan.com by Email 15 years ‘toying” with idea. Great! One wonders what was the hurdles that created much toying time. Anyways, the first step of setting up the academy has been done. Next is to find students and start the training I guess. It pays quite well to be a priest, so school leavers may want to consider this as a career option as well.
An academy has been set up to train and accredit Hindu priests in the country in a move to reduce the number of foreign priests from India.
Human Resources Minister Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam said the Government had been toying with the idea of setting up such an academy for more than 15 years.
”At present, there are people practising locally as temple priests with various types of training which are very confusing.
”With the setting up of an academy, there will be a national body to recognise and accredit the priests,” he said after launching the academy at Jalan Pasar in RPT Jelapang Tambahan here yesterday.
He said at present, there were 350 priests from India serving at various local Hindu temples in the country.
“But there is a need for thousands of priests,” Dr Subramaniam said, admitting however that the local Hindu community might take some time to get used to the idea of having locally trained priests.
Dr Subramaniam said the Hindu Priests Association would be in charge of the syllabus which had been drawn up after consultation with leading institutions in India.
He said under the syllabus, it would take five years to become a full-fledged priest.
“There are five grading, allowing those at each level to perform different functions,” he said, adding that, for example, those who passed Grade One could perform the worship ritual pooja while those with Grade Five could consecrate new temples.
