TEAM HERALD
MARGAO/PANJIM: Margao-based Popular High School headed by Chairman Avdhut Parrikar, brother of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, did not tune in to the Prime Minister’s Teachers day telecast, whose viewing was made binding by his brother Chief Minister’s government.
However, most schools throughout the state made arrangements for the live telecast of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech to students on the occasion of Teacher’s Day.
Students cheered as Modi began his 90-minute Teacher’s Day speech, followed by an interaction with the students from Delhi, via satellite and telecast live on Doordarshan and the human resource development ministry website.
But Popular High School may not be quite popular with the Prime Minister if he knows that the Chief Minister’s sibling didn’t switch on the set in his school to beam him in. The school had an alibi that the internet was slow and down and it was near impossible to take a cable connection at the eleventh hour.
Instead, the school Principal Pratibha Agna Nayak said that the school will play the recorded version of the PM’s speech to the students in the lab within the next two days. “Our school internet has been down since the last few days. Our computers are also not working since water seeped inside the school after the strong winds which blew off the roof top. It was not possible to take a cable connection for a day, especially at the last minute”, Pratibha told Herald when asked to cite reasons for the school’s failure to arrange the PM’s live telecast. So even the CM’s brother can’t get a cable connection in day.
Though the educational institutions did not make attendance compulsory, students at every school in the capital turned up in large numbers to watch the speech. While some schools managed to accommodate all students in their respective school halls, where the programme was telecast on big screens, institutions that faced infrastructure and logistic difficulties still made it happen by hiring halls and television sets.
Interestingly, the Popular High School Principal had made no mention of the internet problems being faced by the school over the last few days.
However, when Herald visited the school premises at around 3 pm, there were no students around to watch the telecast, except for a handful of students who were holed up in a classroom where extra classes were held. The Principal, however, contended that the school management took the decision to call off the programme at around 12.30 pm as the internet was still giving problems.
The Headmistress of Mushtifund Middle School, at Mala, Chantal Gracias said they made the students watch the programme in batches as they had just one television set.
“We are accommodating a selective number of students besides teachers in one classroom having a TV, while in the rest of the classrooms, we switched on the radio. The audio was running simultaneously with power point presentation of PM’s photos and his quotes on various issues,” she told Herald. Out of 350 students, the headmistress confirmed that 320 attended the screening.
The schools also made arrangements for food as mid-day meals were served to them in the afternoon. Majority of the schools did not have classes in the morning.
“We did not conduct classes in the morning. There was one class at 1:45 pm, which was followed by PM’s speech and interaction. All are thrilled to be a part of the whole event,” Principal of Don Bosco High School Fr Avin Carvalho said adding that 1200 students attended.
The response at Hegdewar School was also positive with around 425 students sharing two rooms to watch the event projected on a screen. Principal Vilas Satarkar said, “the students were clapping at every statement the PM made”.
