Notwithstanding reservations expressed by Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan ahead of Narendra Modi's televised date with school children across the country, the Prime Minister's speech and subsequent interaction with students on the occasion of Teachers' Day left a positive impression on the minds of children, parents, and teachers in Mumbai and its suburbs on Friday.
Though the Maharashtra Government had not received specific data as to how many schools across the State had televised the Prime Minister's speech-cum-interaction with students on the occasion of Teachers' Day celebrations, the New Delhi event created a quite buzz in the State. If in or if not in schools, students, teachers, parents and also family members of the wards were glued to television sets to watch Modi's endearing tete-e-tete with school children and teachers gathered at Manekshaw Centre in the capital.
The PM's speech and interaction was broadcast live to schools across the country via television, radio and web networks. Though the Maharashtra Government had not made it mandatory on the part of schools to show Modi's interaction with students, it had sent out to a message to the educational institutions across the state to telecast the event. "There are 1.4 lakh schools in the state, and about two crore students. But, we are yet to receive the data about how many managed to show the telecast and how many actually watched," Maharashtra's Education Secretary Ashwini Bhide said.