New Delhi: 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 on Monday stated.
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.
The objective of the new practice is to “foster patriotism among students right from childhood,” it said. Copies of the notification were sent to the district education officials with instructions to implement it from January 1.
As per the notification, the decision was taken by the state education minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama in a review meeting held Monday.
According to the Indian Express, Chudasama was inspired by Sandeep Joshi a history teacher in the Jalore district, who was recently recognised by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (students’ wing of the RSS) for his work in education, including making his students say ‘Jai Hind’ and ‘Jai Bharat’.
“There is nothing bad in taking inspiration from such a good initiative. This was followed in Gujarat decades ago but somewhere down the line, it was forgotten,” the newspaper quoted Chudasama as saying.
(With PTI inputs)