Non-Cong states against PM’s letter to students

Students across several non-UPA ruled states will witness politics over education on Children's Day, November 14, when the school headmasters will read a note by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and another by the state chief minister in the morning assembly.

Updated on: Oct 26, 2011, 24:23:04 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Students across several non-UPA ruled states will witness politics over education on Children's Day, November 14, when the school headmasters will read a note by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and another by the state chief minister in the morning assembly.

The HRD ministry had decided to mail a speech by PM Singh to over 13 lakh elementary schools all over the country to create awareness about Right To Education (RTE).

The PM's speech, Siksha Ka Haq (right to education), is intended to encourage children, parents and 60 lakh teachers in elementary schools to make more efforts to realise the right to education.

The HRD ministry wants to make all schools RTE compliant by March 2013, a daunting task considering the fund constraints and a huge shortage of teachers.

But, the non-Congress ruled states are not enthused and have described the PM's letter as politically-motivated.

"School education is a state subject and we were not consulted before taking a decision," said Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan, during the National Development Council meeting. He would be writing to school children of his state on importance of education and efforts taken by the state government to promote school education.

Gujarat, another BJP ruled states, has also decided that CM Narendra Modi would be sending a letter addressed to children on Children's Day. "Education cannot be used for politics," a state government official said, reiterating that the HRD ministry cannot take a unilateral decision.

Punjab, which is going to polls early next year, has also told the HRD ministry that CM Prakash Singh Badal will also be sending a message for school children.

Sources said other non-Congress ruled states may follow suit.

To have maximum impact, the HRD ministry had decided to mail the PM's speeches in regional languages. A decision in this regard was announced at a recent meeting of state education ministers with HRD minister Kapil Sibal to create awareness about RTE.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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