Centre’s initiative keeps HRD department officials on toes
For a State where 2,348 schools and their 1,87,637 students — 93,563 of them girls — attending classes without even proper arrangement of drinking water, leave alone the figures about decent toilets, the Centre’s latest diktat for Teachers’ Day celebration came as nothing less than a shock.
In its attempt to live up to the Union Human Resource Development Ministry’s instructions to make arrangements for the students to listen to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address on September 5, the Teacher’s Day, schools of the State are relying heavily on the likes of mukhiyas, ward councillors, school management committee members, teachers and other affluent people from the villages.
Following the order and related directive sent to all District Superintendents of Education (DSEs), the officials at the local levels have told principals and teachers of all the schools coming under their jurisdiction to arrange for themselves the logistics such as TV sets, antenna, power backup etc to make the initiative a success.
“We have held a meeting of all the principals and instructed them to arrange the desired gadgets for September 5. They have been told to take help of villagers and elected representatives in arranging TV, battery or generators. Now-a-days TV sets are available in every village,” said Mukesh Kumar Sinha, DEO of Jamshedpur.
The Prime Minister has planned to address and interact with school-goers and direction to ensure that children are present in the schools from 3 to 4.45 pm on theday has been issued. His speech will be telecast and broadcast on radio live and thus the school managements have to make the necessary preparations. Timing of the classes will be re-arranged accordingly and also the mid-day meal.
“We have about six Kasturba Gandhi Vidyalyas which have TV sets and power backup. Also, there are 8-10 private schools. Some Pragya Kendras and Panchayat Bhawans have projectors. These schools would accommodate children from other schools from their vicinity,” said Purushottam Ramakant Pandey, DSE of latehar which has over 1277 schools.
However, the arrangement is a difficult task for the areas like Garu and Mahuadand with minimum exposure to power and TV sets. “There are about 215 schools where screening is not possible. The teachers have been told to carry or arrange radio sets which would not be a problem,” added Pandey.
Though the Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani has clarified that transmitting the speech was voluntary, the officials are taking it as an opportunity and exposure of their children to a different experience. “The DC has passed strict order to make arrangement to all principals on September 1. Today we have received reports about compliance and 15 out of 19 blocks have completed with all the arrangements,” said Garhwa DSE Arvind Kumar.
Modi will also be talking to a handful of students at the Manekshaw Auditorium in Delhi on the occasion and fielding questions on video conferencing from children of 10 States of the country. Though, none from the Jharkhand figures into the list. “We have instructed the schools management committees to prepare relatively tastier MDM on the occasion. It would be like a celebration,” said the Jamshedpur DEO.
Private schools in Ranchi, however, are all set to make the occasion a memorable one with arrangement of huge screens for the students to letting every student listen to the PM in the cozy comfort of their homes.
“We have issued a circular for the students that they watch the show in their homes. These days almost every household has a TV set but we have also made arrangements for around 700 students, who wish to watch the programme in school,” said JVM Shyamali Principal AK Singh.
DPS, Ranchi, on the other hand, has made elaborate arrangements for the programme as it expects around 1,000 students to watch the show live in school. The show will be telecast live on Smartboards connected through the Internet in the classrooms.
School principal Dr Ram Singh hoped that the students would enthusiastically take part in the event where the PM and students from across the country would exchange innovative ideas to enlighten themselves and others.