School Children In Gujarat To Say Jai Hind To Mark Attendance in Classroom

Lately, the Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board, and Director, Primary Education has issued a circular whereby a Government Resolution (GR) has been put forward. The government of Gujarat has drawn inspiration from a Rajasthan teacher who was recently honoured by RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).

Sandeep Joshi, who is a History teacher at a school in Rajasthan's Jalore district, had received the Yashwantrao Kelkar youth award at the ABVP's national conference for his work in the field of education. On similar lines, the government has issued directions for the school children to answer their roll call by saying “Jai Hind” or “Jai Bharat” instead of saying “Yes Ma’am”. The direction is to be implemented in all government as well as private schools. The decision became effective on January 1, 2019. Gujarat Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama told the media that this practise is not new. This was practised few decades back but slowly the practise vanished off. This step has been taken basically to imbibe the feeling of nationalism amongst the students. Nationalism refers to a political, social, and economic ideology and movement which is usually characterized by the promotion of the interests of a particular nation, especially with the motive of gaining and constantly maintaining the nation's sovereignty over its homeland. The Congress party has opposed this initiative stating that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is trying to saffronise education. Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot-led Rajasthan government has decided to deeply review changes taken with respect to the education sector by the previous Vasundhara Raje government. In the month of May 2018, then Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Shri. Shivraj Singh Chouhan issued a similar direction directing the students to say “Jai Hind” instead of “Yes Sir” or “Yes Mam” to answer their roll call in school.

By: Anuja Arora

Content: https://indianexpress.com/article/india/gujarat-education-roll-call-jai-hind-jai-bharat-5517853/