During third Reich, when Nazis ruled Germany, the ministry of public enlightenment and propaganda led by Joseph Goebbels and Werner Naumann had exercised control over schools. Schools & students were subjected to become tools of propaganda. Something similar is happening in India of 2021.
Several principals and teachers have said that Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) authorities have asked their schools in at least two regions, to get their Class XII students to tweet video messages under the hashtag “Thank You Modi Sir” for cancelling their board exams.
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A number of academics said that this move would undermine the dignity of the schools and the teachers, who had to pass on the diktat to the students. They stated that this amounted to schoolchildren being used for political propaganda.
A senior official at a private school in Delhi said that this was an attempt to rub Modi’s image amid the criticism over the hugely deplorable mismanagement of the Covid19 crisis. The nudge from the KVS came “unofficially” in a WhatsApp message. But, many teachers emphasised that the schools had no choice but to obey.
Deputy commissioner for the Bangalore region, Sirimala Sambana sent the direction over a WhatsApp message to the principals of the 51 Kendriya Vidyalayas in the region. Essentially, all KVs in the whole of Karnataka received the WhatsApp message. The message had stated, “Please share among teacher/ students, if not shared immediately, and get at least 5 videos.”
A KVS official said that a similar message had been sent to the principals of the Ernakulam region, which covers Kerala and has 39 Kendriya Vidyalayas. The KVS official added that the Union education ministry had unofficially prodded the KVS to get its students to post such tweets.
KVS which is funded by central government, has 25 regions and runs over 1,200 schools in the country and three abroad.