New Delhi: Lakhs of students in the municipal schools today saw Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Teachers' Day programme even though rain played a bit of a spoilsport on the occasion.
Modi gave a pep talk to about 1,000 selected students at the Manekshaw Auditorium here, where he shared his thoughts and experiences on education at home and abroad. Top officials at the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) said “nearly 2 lakh” students attended the event in schools spread across its six zones.
“We had made all the necessary arrangements at our schools. Over 1.83 lakh students from Class I to Class V attended the event in our schools in north Delhi. “While the new schools have multi-purpose halls so the PM's speech was hosted indoors, for some of the old schools, we had made arrangements outdoors.
But due to rains we had to shift the set up indoors too,” Director (Press & Information), NDMC, Yogendra Singh Mann told PTI. He said among the several zones, big screens were arranged at several school and students from two or three schools were assembled together at one place for better viewing experience.
“Despite rains, we managed to do it successfully. For instance at Turkman Gate school, where we had allowed media coverage, we put the screens inside just in time for the PM's speech,” Mann said.
Modi, shared his learning about education system in Japan and also told anecdotes about his playful childhood, of playing pranks on others, much to audience's delight. NDMC has over 750 schools under its jurisdiction, and barring students from the morning shifts, rest all attended, Mann said.
In East Delhi, the attendance was 80,000 including 4300 municipal-aided schools.
“We had a presence of 80,000 students in our schools in East Delhi. Apart from that 36,000 from EDMC-recognised schools also attended,” Mann, also Director (Press & Information), EDMC, said.
The PM's speech was beamed live to over 18 lakh government and private schools in the country through Doordarshan and education channels.
He also interacted with students and took questions from them through video-conference facility. The South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) had made arrangements in its 432 schools for around 2.25 lakh children and 5000 teachers to watch Modi speak.
Meanwhile, 100 teachers and principals altogether from the three civic bodies were honoured with the Municipal Teacher's Award on the day.
“Forty from the NDMC, 25 from the EDMC and 35 from the SDMC were awarded,” Mann said.
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