No more 'yes sir', 'present sir' in schools: Gujarat govt

AHMEDABAD: From now on, school students across Gujarat , will say ‘Jai Hind’ or ‘ Jai Bharat ’ during roll call instead of ‘Yes sir’ or ‘Yes madam’. A circular to this effect has been issued by the state education department, making it mandatory for school students. A government resolution on the mandate was also released by the department on Monday.Officials of the state education department said the move is aimed at promoting patriotism among students from an early age. “When I was a student, it was compulsory for me and other students to confirm attendance by saying Jai Hind/ Jai Bharat. The practice was later discontinued. We have taken a decision to resume the practice from Tuesday onwards,” said Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, state education minister.“A student says yes sir/ yes madam at least 10,000 times during their schooling. If they replace this with Jai Hind/ Jay Bharat, it will harbour sentiments of patriotism among them,” he added.The notification says, “District education officers (DEO) are supposed to ensure that the circular is strictly implemented across all the government, grant-in-aid and self-financed schools.”During the recently held 64th national convention of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in Ahmedabad, the recipient of Professor Yashwantrai Kelkar Award, Sandeep Joshi, a schoolteacher based in Jhalor, Rajasthan, said, “We implemented this practice in our school as a pilot project. However, it later got extrapolated to being implemented across Rajasthan.”Chudasama was also present at the ABVP convention, when Joshi shared this. When asked if the Rajasthan Model is being followed in Gujarat, he said, “There is no harm in adopting best practices in education that are implemented in other parts of the country".