Amid the ongoing Periodic Assessment Test (PAT) integrated with the annual final exams of schools in Maharashtra, a new directive to observe ‘Poshan Pakhwada’ (nutrition fortnight) on the same days has sparked controversy. While the initiative aims to raise awareness about the importance of nutrition through various activities, schools complain that this is impossible amid ongoing final exams.
The directive to observe ‘nutrition fortnight’ in schools is based on guidelines from the central government under the Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman scheme. As per the circular dated April 8 issued by Sharad Gosavi, director of Primary Education in Maharashtra, schools have to conduct activities such as nutrition awareness workshops, discussions with experts, conduct meetings of School Management Committees, highlighting importance of locally grown food items, holding competitions on topic of nutrition such as drawing, poster-making among others. But all this has to be conducted by schools from April 8 to 25, coinciding exactly with the final exam time-table.
Schools across Maharashtra are questioning the timing of the initiative, which asks to conduct various activities during the days when final exams are being held. A senior teacher from a school in Mumbai said, “The final exam dates are widely known across the school education sector, especially after the recent controversy over school demanding rescheduling and government insisting on proceeding as planned. Yet another directive is issued to conduct a separate initiative on the same days.”
Adding to this, the principal of a Zilla Parishad school said, “It is strange that the directives are issued on April 8, the very day when the initiative was supposed to begin. Is the government serious about the initiative or is it just to confuse schools?”
Former head of the Maharashtra State School Principals’ Association Mahendra Ganpule said, “This is not the right time to raise awareness about nutritional diets. Students are in the middle of their annual exams and teachers are busy with paper-correction and other assessments. Additionally, schools are currently working to complete data entry of students’ assessment for another central government initiative, which keeps track of understanding levels of students in different classes.”
Additionally, schools have also objected to the use of the Hindi word ‘pakhwada’. “There was no need to replicate the Hindi word to implement the initiative in Maharashtra. Is classical status for Marathi meant only for advertisements?” questioned Ganpule.
Gosavi was unavailable for comment.