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WHAT JUST HAPPENED?

Students in Gujarat schools will answer roll calls with ‘Jai Hind’ or ‘Jai Bharat’ instead of the current ‘yes sir’ and ‘present sir’ from January 1 in order to ‘foster patriotism’, a notification issued
The notification, issued by the Directorate of Primary Education and Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSHSEB), says that students of Class 1-12 in government, grant-in-aid and self-financed schools will have to respond to the attendance call with “Jai Hind” or “Jai Bharat,” starting January 1.

WHICH SCHOOLS AND WHICH CLASSES WILL HAVE TO SAY ‘JAI HIND’ DURING ATTENDANCE?

The minister said schools affiliated to the CBSE and other boards have also been asked to follow the new guidelines.
“Even local private schools have said that this is a good decision of the state government,” he claimed.

CRITICISM OF THE MOVE

“The standard of primary education in Gujarat has gone down significantly over the last several years. The BJP government engages only in talks and programmes in the name of improving quality,“ – Gujarat Congress Leader

ANALYSIS

In 2018 – Gujarat government wrapped up its eighth edition of evaluation of government primary schools, Guntosav.
The findings of the National Achievement Survey, released by the Centre’s HRD Ministry in January, overall paint a dismal state of school education in Gujarat.
The survey, which was conducted in all the 33 districts of the state interviewing over 1.25 lakh students, shows a consistent decline in the learning levels of students in mathematics, language and science from Class III to Class VIII in the government school system — both government schools and government-aided schools.
The drop in the overall learning levels being sharp in all the three subjects.
For instance, the response level of students fell from 65 to 47 per cent in mathematics, 71 per cent to 64 per cent in language and 68 to 52 per cent in science subjects.

NAS FINDINGS

In Class III, 41 per cent of students could not read and write numbers up to 999. The situation worsens as one interviews students from higher classes.
For instance, more than half of the 41,393 Class VIII students (53 per cent) could not solve problems on daily life situations involving addition and subtraction of fractions and decimals and nearly 7 out of 10 students (69 per cent) could not calculate the surface area and volume of a cuboidal and cylindrical object.

GOVT’S DEFENCE

The state government, however, blames the “falling standards of primary education” on the landmark Right to Education Act and its no detention policy. The law which was enacted by the previous UPA government at the Centre has been consistently opposed by BJP-led government in the state, demanding the rules to be revoked for the last two years.

GUJARAT EDUCATION IN RURAL EDUCATION

Gujarat’s 22% rural girls fail to attend school, worse than all states, including UP, Bihar: Govt of India report The data form part of the final report of the National Family Health Survey, 2015-16 (NFHS-4), released last month by the Government of India.

SHOULD PATRIOTISM BE FORCED?

Mahatma Gandhi didn’t approve of forcing someone to say Jai Hind: Rajmohan Gandhi Nationalism vs patriotism

NATIONALISM VS PATRIOTISM

Nationalism is an ideology based on the premise that an individual’s loyalty and devotion to one’s country should come above the interests and opinions of other citizens or the interests of a certain group of citizens
The pride of nationalism, however, trumpets its country’s virtues and denies its deficiencies. Nationalism is contemptuous toward the virtues of other countries. It wants to be and proclaims itself to be “the greatest”.

Patriotism is an attachment to a homeland. The love and adoration for the place where an individual is born, brought up, and the nation that place belongs to. These attachments can be related to ethnic, cultural, political or historical.
Patriotism is also being proud of a country’s virtues but with an eagerness and readiness to correct its deficiencies to be better. Patriotisn acknowledges the patriotism of citizens of other countries and respects their virtues.