T.N. schools not excited over Modi’s Teachers Day address

It is feared that PM’s talk will take on colours of language politics

Even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Teachers Day address planned for Friday has kicked up a major row across the country, the Tamil Nadu School Education Department and private matriculation schools in the State seem unenthusiastic about the event.

Few private matriculation schools in the State seem to be making arrangements for the event. Neither the government schools nor corporation institutions are following suit in the absence of any instruction from the Tamil Nadu government. Only the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) schools are readying for the event, following a directive from CBSE Chairman Vineet Joshi.

A senior School Education Department official told The Hindu here on Wednesday that no orders had been issued to prevent private matriculation schools from making arrangements for the event or restraining them from making it mandatory for students to attend.

A senior official in the National Informatics Centre (NIC), the State-run agency that provided IT services to government departments, said that no instructions were issued, as on Wednesday, directing them to set up the infrastructure in the State government schools for this event. The NIC is the nodal agency that usually provided the equipment for organising such events in government departments. An office-bearer in an association that represented private schools across the State said that private schools were reluctant to take steps in the absence of any directive from the School Education Department.

They were not keen on the event mainly because of the sensitive issue of language politics.

Schools fear that some political parties might raise objections since they view the event as ‘thrusting’ Hindi on non-Hindi-speaking States.“It is good to see a Prime Minster speak to schools students but if he speaks in Hindi, which is most likely, not many students may understand. Also, schools need time to make arrangements,” the office-bearer added.

Some other schools also expressed their inability to host such an event as they lacked infrastructure, such as multi-media auditorium, to accommodate thousands of students at the same time. There are also some school associations that view the event in a positive light. R. Lakshmanasamy, president, Pollachi Private Schools’ Welfare Association, said that all CBSE schools and some private matriculation schools in Pollachi, though, were making arrangements for students to view the event. All CBSE schools are viewing the programme as mandatory, despite assertions to the contrary by Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani.