Students appreciated Modi, teachers expected more

Speaking to Newsline, Ayush Sharma, a student of DAV Public School, BRS Nagar, said, “We had no electricity at home when the speech started but I made it a point to access it through Internet on phone. I liked the fact that the PM kept speech very short and more time was given to interacting with students and answering their questions.”

“What I liked the most was Modi’s childhood stories like pranks which he used to play. He also narrated an incident of stapling two people standing together which was really funny. Hardly we see such Prime Ministers who go beyond formal speeches, heavy words and interact with children in their language,” said Aarzoo, a class VIII student.

The students also liked the PM telling them to go beyond school curriculum and enjoy sports. “PM said that if we do not sweat four times a day, that too profusely, we cannot be healthy. I liked this point and also that degrees are not enough to get jobs but it is the skill that matters. Our parents and teachers should also learn from this and do not pressure students to study all the time,” said Arpit Jain, a student.

The students from government schools were a happy lot that PM spoke pure Hindi which was understandable for all. “He addressed us as Bal Mitra. It was so good to hear directly from a PM which has not happened for many years. Earlier, only Jawahar Lal Nehru and Dr A P J Abdul Kalam were considered children’s friends but now Modi’s name has been added to this short list,” said Smriti, a government school student of class VIII.

“I was highly inspired by the PM’s mention of Nagpur city where streetlights are turned off and even people turn off lights at home on full moon night. We have forgotten to enjoy nature and spend valuable time in its lap. His mention of Google Guru was a reality which we cannot ignore.

We have become so dependent on information from Google that knowledge from libraries and good books is never grasped,” said Sumit, a class VII student.

However, some teachers felt that interaction was more about students, not teachers. “We thought PM would listen to problems of teachers and interact with them. He would speak on issues like corruption in the education system, education turning into a business but he focused more on students than teachers. However, we liked when he talked about raising standards of this profession and students forgetting importance of a teacher in their life. When he said ‘why even the educated people do not want to be a teacher in India’, we appreciated his concern,” said a government school teacher.