PM MOdi’s 66TH biRTHdaY cElEbRaTEd

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 66th birthday was celebrated on Saturday with wishes pouring in from across the nation. While BJP leaders engaged in social service activities to celebrate the PM’s birthday, other national and international politicians also congratulated Modi. Several Guinness records were made and the common man, too, sent wishes to the Prime Minister through social media platforms. Modi celebrated his birthday in Gujarat during his two day-trip and met his mother Hira Ba. Modi tweeted: “Mother’s love and blessings are the basic essence of life,” and also posted two pictures of him and his mother. President Pranab Mukherjee also greeted the PM on Twitter. Modi thanked President Mukherjee and Vice President Hamid Ansari for their wishes. The government of Gujarat created two Guinness world records as part of the birthday celebrations. The organisers in Navasari district broke a world record for the maximum number of people in wheelchairs who formed a logo. The previous record was made in the US by 346 wheelchairbound persons in 2010. The new record involved 1,000 persons on wheelchairs. The other record was established by lighting 1,500 oil lamps simultaneously at a single location. Another record attempt was made by providing hearing aids to 1,000 hearing-impaired persons. The previous record was made in Australia. The No Detention Policy (NDP) introduced by the then UPA government under the Right to Education Act 2009 has led to a fall in the quality of education in government schools, according to education experts.

The ASER (Annual Status of Education Report) report of 2014 says that less than 50% of the students of Class V, enrolled in government schools, could even read a Standard II textbook, and over 40% of the students in Standards II and III did not recognise numbers till 100. It does not end there. Around 56% of the students in Standard VIII failed to complete simple division, while 50% of Standard V students failed to even do simple subtraction.

“Close to half of all children will finish eight years of schooling, but still not have learned basic skills in arithmetic. Special focus, time and attention are needed to help children from Standard IIIVIII to learn the basic and foundational skills,” the report said.

Lata Vaidyanathan, former principal of Modern School, Barakhamba Road, told The Sunday Guardian, “The No Detention Policy is not at all helping the students. In fact, when students are being put to serious examinations in Class IX, they stumble. However, up to the primary education level (till Class V), the policy could be accepted to a certain extent, provided objective teaching and learning outcomes are achieved