Rajasthan’s Education department has asked government schools to invite local religious leaders to lecture students once a month as part of the institution’s extra-curricular activities, The Indian Express reported on Wednesday.
It is part of mandatory events that the schools need to organise every Saturday. On the first Saturday of every month, biographies of renowned persons will be read out to students and they will be told about inspirational events from their lives. On the second Saturday, schools will hold storytelling sessions involving “inspirational” tales that “educate”. The fourth Saturday will have quizzes on epics.
On the fifth Saturday, if the month has one, students will watch “inspirational plays” and sing patriotic songs, the calendar said. The third Saturday of each month should consist of a “review of contemporary news of national importance and speeches by a great personality or local saint”. The schedule is part of the yearly calendar of the state’s Directorate of Secondary Education.
The department has sent the academic calendar to all district education officers in the state, asking them to ensure that all government schools implement it. There are around 86,000 government schools in the state, according to the Hindustan Times.
The department’s director Nathmal Didel said such programmes were part of the calendar in the 2016-’17 academic calendar as well. “This is irrespective of any religion; it could be a Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or Christian,” he told the newspaper. “The saints, who are locally known, respected, and in whom people have faith, could share values of life with the students.”
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