Girls studying in over 450 municipal primary schools in the Capital will miss the live telecast of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech on Teachers’ Day as their schools simply have no space for them.
A total of 452 schools under the three municipal corporations operate in two shifts, a morning session for girls and an afternoon shift for boys, due to lack of infrastructure. According to the orders issued by the Directors of Education, only students of the late shift will watch the address in schools that have double shifts.
In the schools that have a single shift, timings have been changed so that children don’t have to spend the whole day in class. They will go to school at 12.30 and leave after the Teachers’ Day programmes at 5.30 p.m.
Mr. Modi’s speech and a question and answer session will go on from 3 p.m. to 4.45 p.m. The Delhi Government has asked the civic bodies to arrange televisions, set-top boxes and projectors for the event.
Principals of South Delhi Municipal Corporation schools have been asked by the Education Department to make sure the students’ parents are informed about the change in timings. Teachers have been asked to inform parents about the telecast’s timings through almanacs of those students who miss the event so they may watch it at home.
The North and East civic bodies have been issued similar instructions.
“The Principals have been asked to inform the Delhi Government by 3 p.m. on Friday about the number of students attending,” said North and East Corporations’ spokesperson Y.S. Mann.
Besides making arrangements for watching the speech, the civic bodies will hold cultural programmes by teachers and award ceremonies at their headquarters. Private and aided-schools have also been asked by the government to make arrangements for the Teachers’ Day speech.
