Saffronisation of Education: Govt makes it mandatory for students to watch Modi’s Sept 5 speech

While Congress-led government in Kerala has decided not to telecast Prime Minister’s address on Teacher’s Day (September 5), J&K government has made it mandatory for all schools and colleges in the State to ensure that students watch Narendra Modi’s speech.
“I have already informed Divisional Commissioners of Jammu and Kashmir divisions to pass directions to concerned Deputy Commissioners to make arrangements in all education institutions for watching PM’s speech on Teachers’ Day,” Secretary Department of Education, Nirmal Sharma told Rising Kashmir.
PM Modi is to give a pep-talk to about 1,000 selected students at the Manekshaw Auditorium in New Delhi on September 5, which will be beamed live to over 18 lakh government and private schools in the country through Doordarshan and education channels. The telecast will start at 3 pm and continue up to 4.45 pm.
Sharma said she has asked Director of School Education Jammu and Kashmir  to pass directions to Chief Education Officers (CEOs) to make proper arrangements so that students can watch PM’s live-speech.
According to her, students up to 12th class will participate in the program and watch or listen PM’s speech.
“Ladakh has been selected as one among the five places where PM would interact with students through video conference. We have selected NIT Leh as venue for this live interaction of students,” Sharma said.
The schools will have to arrange for television sets, cable connections, projectors and amplifiers so that students can watch address and subsequent question-and-answer session.
“CEOs will be directed to assemble students at 2:30 pm on September 5 at convenient places. We will make arrangements in every nook and corner of the State to ensure students watch the live telecast,” Nirmal said.
She said school administration will hire TV and generator sets in some places in case power supply was not available.
“We have TVs in 600-700 schools and internet facilities in some other schools. The school administration will arrange radio sets and transistors in remote areas. At least students should be able to hear the speech in case they won’t be able to watch it live on TV,” added Nirmal.