With a majority of schools, particularly, in the remote and the hilly areas of Uttarakhand, remaining shorn of the basic service like electricity, the opportunity of watching the Prime Minister giving message alive on the occasion of Teacher's Day on Friday would remain elusive for the students studying in such schools. Radio-sets that have become almost a showpiece in the antique lovers' archives will come handy as these would again be crackling that day, bringing the PM's message home to them.
Out of about 1,100 Government-run schools spread across different districts of the Kumaon region, half of them, mainly in remote and hilly areas of the hill districts, keep running short of electricity.Besides radio sets, mobile phones or internets will be used up to the hills as alterative means to facilitate the students to be part of the much-touted programme.
In view of the Prime Minister's speech being scheduled to be telecast in the afternoon on Friday, the school hours are being changed accordingly. Even the private schools would open that day around noon and they would remain open till the speech is completed. Normally these schools open at 7 am and continue till noon.
At the same time, as the officials concerned of the basic education sector informed, it is not mandatory for the children, studying in primary classes i.e. from nursery to 5th standard, to stay put in the schools to watch the live telecast of the Prime Minister's speech till late afternoon.
However, necessary arrangements have been made in the schools to ensure that the students studying in 6th standard to 12th standard can view the speech, said Sushma Singh, Additional Director, School Education, Kumaon Division, while talking to The Pioneer.