Schools ignore national anthem, parents unhappy

Parents of children from various city schools have voiced their anger over social media platforms against those academic institutions which are ignoring the singing of the anthems.
Image of the Indian flag used for representational purpose only.
Image of the Indian flag used for representational purpose only.

BENGALURU: Several city schools are allegedly merely singing their school or college anthems while ignoring the practice of singing the national and state anthems during morning assembly in violation of a 2006 Government Order (GO) which makes it mandatory for all primary, high school and PU colleges to sing the state and national anthems. Parents of children from various city schools have voiced their anger over social media platforms against those academic institutions which are ignoring the singing of the anthems. Some parents have even submitted memorandums to the principals of the institutions concerned which are violating the 2006 order.

A group of parents have decided to approach the Primary and Secondary Education minister N Mahesh to submit a memorandum demanding strict directions to schools to sing national and state anthems compulsorily. They are also planning to send a copy of it to Union Human Resource Minister Prakash Javadekar to issue directions at the national level.

In a social media post, an irate parent has said, “To make our kids sing the national anthem every day is an essential part of our children’s basic foundation. It is sad that some of the schools reserve it only for celebrating national days.”

Another parent said: “I request schools to make our national anthem compulsory every morning before starting the classes for every grade. It would have a great impact on the children. We all grew up singing the national anthem at the morning assembly at schools everyday.”

Interestingly, some schools do not even conduct morning assemblies regularly. “We conduct assembly once a week. Otherwise, morning assemblies are conducted at the class levels and the school anthem is sung there,” said a principal of a reputed school in the city.

Some school authorities even say there is no mandate from the government to sing the national anthem. Mansoor Ali Khan, board member, Delhi Public School, said, “There is no particular order or direction from the government. As we do not conduct assembly every morning, national anthem will be sung once a week during assembly.”

However, D Shashi Kumar, general secretary of Associated Management of  Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka, said, “Most of our member schools made it mandatory to sing national anthem in the morning assembly and state anthem in the evening at class level at the end of school hours.”

He, however, feels schools do not need directions from government to sing the national anthem. “It is a moral and social responsibility of the schools to sing both national and state anthems, and it hardly takes six minutes. We do condemn the schools which think it is a waste of time,” he said.

Last year’s circular too ignored

A year ago, when Tanveer Sait was primary and secondary education minister, he issued a circular mandating all schools in Karnataka to sing the state anthem every morning during assembly. But this too is not being followed by a majority of the city schools.

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