Uttar Pradesh
Suspect mid-day meal
Sanya (4) and Besma (5) died and 46 other children were hospitalised after consuming milk served during their mid-day meal at the Junior High School in Kanshi Ram Colony near Mathura. Samples of the suspect milk and water have been taken, a police spokesman informed the media on May 5.
“The children first complained of stomach ache followed by diarrhoea after drinking the milk served to them. However, the exact cause of food poisoning is being ascertained,” said district magistrate Rajesh Kumar. While 22 children were admitted into the district hospital, 19 were sent to the Swarna Jayanti Hospital and five others to a multi-specialty hospital in serious condition.
“Two teams of doctors have been stationed in Kanshi Ram Colony after the incident,” the chief medical officer said, adding that a team of doctors is also providing door-to-door precautionary treatment. Use of water from overhead tanks has also been banned, he added.
Gujarat
Sanjeev Kapoor cuisine for JNVs
Union human resource development (HRD) minister Smriti Irani announced plans to engage world-class chef Sanjeev Kapoor to help improve the nutrition of students of the country’s 596 wholly residential Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas (JNVs), run by the ministry. Irani was laying the foundation of a new JNV at Hathijan village near Ahmedabad, on May 16.
“Bright students from rural households are admitted into JNVs. To provide them nutritious meals on a par with private boarding schools, we have roped in celebrity chef Sanjeev Kapoor to help improve food quality and nutrition in JNVs,” she said, speaking on the occasion.
According to Irani, Kapoor will train cooks employed in CBSE-affiliated JNVs which offer class VI-XII free-of-charge education to meritorious rural students. “This new school which will become fully operational by 2019 will be equipped with smart classrooms. Two similar schools will also be built in Valsad and Dahod districts in the near future,” she added.
Rajasthan
Nehru effacement
Class VIII students of schools affiliated with the Rajasthan Board of Secondary Education will no longer read about Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister.
All references to Nehru in their social science textbook have been effaced and replaced with the story of freedom fighter Hemu Kalani, according to information uploaded on the website of the Rajasthan State Textbook Board. The textbook revision exercise was conducted by the Udaipur-based State Institute of Education Research and Training.
Inevitably, this history revision initiative has had a political fallout. Noisy protests erupted in the state legislative assembly on May 8 with the opposition Congress party hitting out at the ruling BJP saying the state government has touched a “new low” by omitting all references to India’s first prime minister in a history textbook.
Nagaland
Pilot financial literacy programme
The National Stock Exchange (NSE) and Nagaland Board of Secondary Education (NBSE) have jointly introduced a pilot financial literacy course for 5,153 class IX students in 60 government schools in Kohima, Dimapur and Mokokchung districts, starting in the new academic year.
In a function to mark the launch of this path-breaking course, F.P. Solo, the state’s commissioner and secretary for school education, expressed hope that it will help inculcate the savings habit in students and encourage them to sign up for commerce and financial management study programmes in higher education institutions. The course curriculum will cover income and expenditure, saving options, elementary knowledge of the banking system, basics of financial planning, money management and financial planning, he added.
Haryana
Secondary school boycott
Citing safety concerns, parents of 38 class IX-XI girl students residing in Suma Khera village have stopped sending them to a government senior secondary school in the neighbouring Lala village, where a student was repo-rtedly raped on April 18.
Since Suma Khera lacks a secondary school, parents were forced to send post-primary children to the neighbouring Lala village. The Suma Khera village panchayat has announced an indefinite dharna until its primary school is upgraded to a senior secondary school.
Addressing the media in Rewari on May 7, deputy commissioner of police Yash Garg said the district authorities have assured girl students of Suma Khera round-the-clock security in Lala village. “We have also arranged teachers in Suma Khera so the girls can continue with their studies,” he added.
Meanwhile, chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar has promised to add a secondary school to the primary school in Suma Khera.
Paromita Sengupta with bureau inputs