The News Minute | September 1, 2014 | 04:41 pm IST
The Teachers’ Day celebrations this year have been marked with controversy and confusion.
A recent directive from the human resource development ministry has asked schools in the country to ensure that all students watch the live televised speech by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Teachers' Day.
The speech, which will be followed by a question-and-answer round, will be telecast live on Doordarshan between 3 pm and 4:45 pm. Schools have been asked to arrange for televisions, cable connections, amplifiers, etc. Also schools may need to change their timings for that day in a way that students can remain in school till the broadcast ends, states a report by Hindustan Times. The order has been issued to all state education departments.
However the order seems to have not gone down well with a few states and political parties.
It was also reported that the Central government was planning to rename Teachers’ Day as Guru Utsav. The news reportedly irked DMK supremo M Karunanidhi as he called it a “conspiracy to downgrade Tamil language”.
After hearing news of a circular issued to all schools asking them to celebrate Teachers’ Day as Guru Utsav, he said that the central government was trying to impose Hindi on the state to destroy Tamil culture.
The Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) and Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) allies have also voiced their opposition to the notice. They have even demanded the Centre to withdraw the order. "It is not proper for the central government to have changed the name as Guru Utsav. This is a discreet attempt to impose Sanskrit, which is not acceptable”, PMK leader S Ramadoss is quoted as saying in a First Post report.
In a report in IBN, DMK leader TKS Elangovan said, "Teachers' Day is the birthday of Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. He was born in Andhra Pradesh and lived in Chennai. So if at all his birthday it to be named it should be in Telugu or Tamil."
However, HRD Minister Smriti Irani on Monday said that Guru Utsav was just the name of an essay competition and that there was no need to object to it. She also said that the directive was not a compulsory one. The report quotes her as saying, "The opposition is trying to politicise the issue and attendance is not mandatory for students."
The West Bengal government has said that it would conduct its own functions on Teachers’ Day and not follow the Centre’s directive. West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee said, "We have received the directive of the Central government but won't follow it. The state government will follow its own programme”, adds IBN.
There is also a contention that the Prime Minister’s speech will be in Hindi and in many South Indian states, students are not well versed with Hindi, which would make it difficult for them to understand what he is saying.
From the timing of the speech which ends in the evening, where as many schools close by two, to some schools claiming that they lack the infrastructure to make arrangements ensuring all students get to watch and hear the PM on Teachers’ Day, there seems to be common dissent brewing among some school authorities and political organisations.
However, schools in states, including Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh, are working towards making all arrangements to ensure that the Centre’s directive is successfully implemented.
According to a report in Outlook, Modi’s speeches on Teachers’ Day, when he was Chief Minister of Gujarat, was broadcast live in schools in the state. The present directive could be an attempt to implement the same exercise across the country.