New Delhi: After much controversy over telecast of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address on Teachers’ Day, all private schools in the national capital have agreed to telecast the address, Delhi Director of Education sources said on Wednesday. Sources added that arrangements have been made to screen the Prime Minister’s speech. The Human Resources Development Ministry has directed schools to stretch their schedule as the Prime Minister’s address will be from 3 PM to 5 PM. Even though education is a state subject, sources said that directions were issued keeping in mind that Delhi is presently under President’s rule.
The HRD Ministry, however, continues to maintain that the order was not mandatory. Some schools have even declared holiday on September 5.
The Narendra Modi government came under fire for its proposal with the opposition parties saying that the directive would cause inconvenience to schools and parents. Senior Congress leader Manisha Tewari said, “The government is inconveniencing teachers, students and parents. The Prime Minister should re-schedule his speech.”
The government directive had asked all head of schools to make available the requisite number of televisions, set-top box connections, projectors, screens, amplifiers and generator sets or invertors on hiring basis, if these are not available in the schools.
Though a number of private schools had termed the initiative as “good and positive”, they feel making the necessary arrangements for showing the address to the students will put lot of burden on the teachers and they would not be able to celebrate the day.