On July 7-8, the students studying in LKG and UKG at Sant Nandlal Smriti Vidya Mandir were asked to memorise the National Anthem of India as well as that of Pakistan and Bangladesh, reported Dainik Bhaskar. The incident took place in Ghatshila town of Jamshedpur in Jharkhand. Owing to the Coronavirus outbreak in the country, all educational institutions have been asked to remain closed. As such, classes are now being conducted online. The homework was thus assigned to the students via their WhatsApp group.
As per the report, the children were divided into three separate groups. While one group was asked to remember the National Anthem of India, the other two groups were given the homework of memorising the national anthems of Pakistan and Bangladesh respectively. Dainik Bhaskar reported that in order to ease the learning process, the teacher Shaila Parveen even shared YouTube videos, featuring the National Anthem of the two countries, in the official WhatsApp group of the class. Moreover, the students were also asked to remember the national symbols of both Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Reportedly, this did not go down well with the parents of the students who raised objections against it. The teacher Shaila Parveen has now passed on the blame to the school management. When Dainik Bhaskar reached out to her, she said that daily homework was assigned to the students on the instructions of the school principal. Reportedly, the objective behind the task was to help increase the ‘general knowledge’ of the students. As per the report, the school administration failed to gauge that it would become a ‘controversial’ issue.
Homework withdrawn; netizens demand strict action
Dainik Bhaskar reported that the said homework was withdrawn, following the outrage by the parents, and netizens on social media. The contentious incident left several people miffed with the school administration. Netizens have demanded strict action against the culprits due to the sensitive nature of the case. The district education officer, Shivendra Kumar, however, informed that he did not receive any complaint regarding the matter.
Nevertheless, he emphasized that it was wrong on the part of the school administration to make children learn the national anthem of Pakistan and Bangladesh. Kumar added that such a thing could not be taught in Indian schools and that and that appropriate action would be taken against those involved in the matter.
Pakistan’s national anthem is Paak sarzameen written by Hafeez Jalandhari, while the national anthem of Bangladesh is Amar Sonar Bangla by Rabindranath Tagore.
