Chandigarh: Days after a Muslim student at an Uttar Pradesh school was allegedly beaten up by his classmates on the instructions of his teacher, Punjab’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government has instructed government schools to impart lessons on “mutual brotherhood” during the morning assembly.
In a press statement issued Sunday, Punjab’s education minister, Harjot Singh Bains, said the move was aimed at strengthening “the ethos of communal harmony” in young minds.
The development comes after a viral video purportedly showed a teacher at Neha Public School in UP’s Muzaffarnagar egging other students on to beat the seven-year-old child. The teacher is heard saying: “Mothers of Mohammedan children leave (for their maternal homes), ruining their children’s education.”
District authorities eventually ordered an investigation, pending which the school was shut down.
In his press statement, Bains called such incidents “unfortunate”, saying that they threaten the unity and integrity of the country.
K.K. Yadav, principal secretary of Punjab’s school education department, told ThePrint that the department had issued detailed instructions to government schools Monday evening.
“These orders have to be implemented across all the primary, middle and secondary schools in Punjab,” Yadav said, adding that Punjab has nearly 19,000 government schools — 12,000 primary schools, 3,000 middle schools and 4,000 senior secondary schools.
‘Completely up to teachers’ creativity’
According to the state government’s orders, 10 minutes of every morning assembly will be dedicated to teachers telling students about various religions and the need to respect them all. Apart from religious tolerance, the schools have also been told to generate consciousness and awareness about nationalism and love for one’s country, Yadav said.
“It’s up to the teachers how to utilise these 10 minutes to give the message of universal brotherhood, communal harmony and nationalism,” Yadav told ThePrint. “The teachers can prepare short thematic speeches, or involve the students to prepare a skit, or make the students read a short story or a poem, or encourage students to write essays, stories, poems which can then be read out during the assembly. It’s completely up to the imagination and the creativity of the teachers how they send the message.”
In his press statement, the minister added that Punjab already followed the path of universal brotherhood shown by the Sikh Gurus.
“But still, due to the influence of social media and other means of communication and to prevent the rise of religious intolerance in students, schools have to educate them about religious harmony during the morning assembly prayers,” he said.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
Also Read: ‘Christians have created a mess’ — What Punjab church attackers told security guard