After colleges, schools in Rajasthan told to hold competitions on flagship schemes

Days after government colleges were directed to organise essay and extempore speech competitions on flagship schemes of Rajasthan, state-run schools have been told to follow suit.

The order issued on Monday by the directorate of secondary education directs the schools to organise the competitions on the completion of four years of the BJP government in the state. The competitions will be organised in two categories – one for classes 1-8 and the other for classes 9-12.

As was the case in colleges, the competitions will be organised first in each school and the winners will participate in the district-level contest. Although the schools have been permitted to choose among the government’s flagship schemes, the order has also suggested some.

‘SIQE (State Initiative for Quality Education) teaching system is very interesting’, ‘My school lit up with anganwadi kids’ and ‘Mother became the head of the family with Bhamashah card’ were some of the topics mentioned in the order. SIQE was launched by the state government in 2015, and anganwadi centres were merged into schools earlier this year.

Bhamashah scheme was implemented for financial inclusion of women. Various welfare schemes are routed through the Bhamashah card, which is linked to the bank account of a woman in the house.

Cleanliness, importance of toilets, girl education, skill development, water conservation, and evils such as child marriage and female feticide are some other themes the education department wants the children to be acquainted with.

Congress leaders condemned the government’s decision, saying the government was misusing state institutions to publicise its own schemes and influence youngsters.

The BJP government in the state has earlier drawn flak for revising schoolbooks, a move termed as ‘saffronisation of education’ by the critics. The revised history books have given prominence to Hindutva ideologue VD Savarkar and gone to the extent of removing Jawaharlal Nehru’s name from the chapter on modern Indian history. One of the revised books suggested adopting a uniform civil code and another advised against eating meat.