In a bizarre new initiative, the state government has asked school kids to click a selfie with their parents while holding a message on 'education quality' penned by the chief minister.
Controversy surrounding District-Level Student Awards
What's more, the winning students in each district will be awarded with cash prizes and an opportunity to have lunch with the chief minister. The contest hasn't gone down well with some who called it a form of political propaganda.
The initiative is part of CM Mazhi Shala Sunder Shala (My School, Beautiful School), a special drive by the state school education department for 'holistic personality development of students and to equip them with essential skills'. The overarching programme, started in December last year, seeks to evaluate schools across the country over their performance in a host of curricular and extracurricular activities including cleanliness, cleanliness, environment protection, national integration, financial literacy and skill development.
Expansion of activities in the Holistic Development Drive
However, on Friday, the department announced three more activities as part of this drive, the selfie contest being one of them. The schools have been directed to upload these selfies on a special portal created for this purpose. The other two activities require students to come up with an 'educational slogan' and take an oath to instill the 'reading habit'.
So far, 1.01 lakh schools have signed up for the drive, while 2.11 crore students have received the letter.
