Ludhiana: Schools lag behind in Centre-led activity after dept fails to issue timely notice

We missed out on forwarding the notification on Thursday morning. But we forwarded it to schools by evening after realising the slip. — Amandeep Singh, deputy district education officer

In a glaring display of administrative slip, district education officials failed to notify government schools in Ludhiana about the central government-led initiative — Indian Language Week — that began on Thursday.

Teachers across government schools said they came to know about the festival later in the day, by which time the first day’s activities had already been forfeited. (File)

The delay in the communication process left a large number of government schools in the district unaware of the event on its opening day, depriving hundreds of students of the chance to engage in activities meant to celebrate the country’s linguistic diversity.

According to a letter issued on December 3, the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), Punjab, had instructed the education department to ensure that the Indian Language Festival is observed in all government schools from December 4 to December 11. The letter outlined the theme, “Many Languages, One Emotion,” and provided a day wise schedule of activities that schools were expected to conduct on Thursday.

However, despite this clear instruction, officials from the education department did not forward the communication to the schools by Thursday afternoon. The oversight meant that the first day of the festival passed without any intimation, preparation or participation.

Teachers across government schools said they came to know about the festival later in the day, by which time the first day’s activities had already been forfeited. Gurpreet Mann, a senior teacher at a government school, expressed disappointment, stating, “We received no prior information. By the time we learned about the festival, the first day had already passed. This is disappointing because students miss out on learning about the beauty of different languages and cultures,” she said.

Another teacher, Anupama, said that although the department forwarded the notification on Thursday evening, it did not contain any guidelines. “Due to this, we can only conduct activities based on Hindi, English and Punjabi. Students are already familiar with these languages, so it nullifies the purpose of celebrating linguistic diversity,” she said.

Echoing similar sentiments, a primary teacher, requesting anonymity, said, “A critical day has already been wasted due to the administration’s slip as inaugural day sets the tone for any such activities. Additionally, my school is a centre for the PPSC exam scheduled on Sunday, for which jammers will be installed on Saturday, making it impossible to conduct activities over the weekend. We can start properly from Monday.”

Acknowledging the lapse, deputy district education officer Amandeep Singh said, “We missed out on forwarding this notification on Thursday morning. But we forwarded it to schools by evening after realising the slip. The activities will carry on from Friday.”