Ludhiana: Punjab govt has directed schoolteachers to record video testimonials from parents about its welfare scheme, “Mawan-Dhiyaan Satkar Yojana,” during a statewide Mega Parent-Teacher Meeting (PTM) scheduled for Friday.A circular issued by the State Council of Education Research and Training (SCERT) asks parents, particularly mothers, to record responses to three specific questions — what the scheme means to them, how they are utilising the financial assistance and whether they have any message for CM Bhagwant Mann.Under the initiative, the AAP govt transfers monthly direct financial aid of Rs 1,500 to Scheduled Caste women and Rs 1,000 to women from general and other categories.School authorities have been instructed to upload the videos to school websites, post them in parents’ WhatsApp groups and submit a mandatory quota of 10 video clips per school alongside their PTM reports. Officials were also directed to extend personal invitations for the event to local MLAs, sarpanchs and other functionaries associated with AAP.The directives have drawn criticism from teacher organisations. Vikramdev Singh, state president, Democratic Teachers Front (DTF) Punjab, accused the administration of turning educational institutions into political propaganda tools.“Inviting political representatives and promoting government schemes on a PTM day compromises the academic environment and the political neutrality of schools,” Singh said, urging school heads to focus discussions exclusively on student attendance and academic progress.Defending the circular, Sonali Giri, secretary, department of school education, said publicising state schemes at school gatherings ensures eligible families do not miss out on financial benefits due to lack of awareness. government schemes which may provide any benefit to the general public will only be discussed among the parents as many of them might be unaware of the benefits from the scheme. However, many similar schemes have been introduced by the governments in the past years.”
