Christmas is a festival of fun, lights and beginning a new year ahead. Schools across India celebrate the festival with enthusiasm and joy. Cultural events, fancy dress competition and skits are organised to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ.
However the District Education Officer (DEO) in MP's Shajapur has issued an order for schools, ahead of Christmas. According to the education officer schools are requested to not indulge the children of other faiths in religious events. The officer said that such cultural progammes are organised peacefully but sometimes it lead to dispute from parents. He said that to prevent such incidents, administration has requested schools to take written permission from students if they are from other religion and taking part in such events.
Watch the interview here:
In an interview to ANI District Education Officer (DEO) Vivek Dubey said, "Cultural programs are held in schools but the programs are bit religious in nature and children of other faiths are also assigned religious characters to play which is not as per their own religion."
"Most of the time such events are held harmoniously but sometimes it leads to disputes and complaints come to us...To ensure that such disputes do not take place in future, all institutions have been urged to conduct religious programs but do not make children of other faiths indulge in skits or fancy dress events. If it is essential then they do so only with written permission from the guardians" added Dubey.
Strict action for not following the rule
An order was issued on December 14 by the district education officer which stated that disciplinary action would be taken against the school if it forced or asked a child to participate in the programme by dressing up as Santa Claus without the parents' consent.
Earlier FPJ reported that the Education Department has issued the order for all the private schools in the district. The Education Department claimed that children are forced to wear special costumes to the event due to which disputes occur. He therefore said that the letter was released.
