East Singhbhum (Jharkhand): The students studying in LKG and UKG at Sant Nandlal Smriti Vidya Mandir in Ghatashila area of Jharkhand's East Singhbhum were asked to memorise the National Anthem of India as well as that of Pakistan and Bangladesh.
The matter came to the fore and triggered a furore after BJP state spokesperson Kunal Sarangi tweeted the matter to chief minister (CM) Hemant Soren, state education minister, HRD officials, central BJP leaders and East Singhbhum deputy commissioner (DC) on Sunday after many parents protested the move by the school.
Due to the corona pandemic induced lockdown, classes are now being conducted online and the homeworks are assigned to the students via their WhatsApp group.
According to reports, 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.
BJP state spokesperson Kunal Sarangi questioned, "After all, under what circumstances has this private school instructed the children to memorize and sing the national songs of Pakistan and Bangladesh? At such a tender age, this is absolutely not acceptable. It is an attempt to manipulate young minds"
"The Chief Minister of Jharkhand Hemant Soren has to take cognizance of this school's act so that another school should not do like this. It was wrong on the part of the school administration to make children learn the national anthem of Pakistan and Bangladesh," he said.
However, reacting over the allegations, Nandlal Smriti Vidya Mandir's principal, Sanjay Kumar Mallick said, "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."
"Under the project, students were to be taught the national anthems, symbols, emblems, bird, animal, flag etc of all the neighbouring countries. The UKG and LKG classes were dividing into five groups and five students of a group were given the national anthem of these two countries for general knowledge. We have, however, withdrawn it as soon as we realized the sentiments of the people," Mallick said.
"This is to inform everyone that now students need not learn the national symbols and national anthems of any country except India. The previous instructions in this regard are cancelled by competent authorities," he added.
ALSO READ: Jharkhand minister Mithilesh Thakur tests positive for COVID-19
