Power glitch during class - Modi, the mentor

Md Arsh and students of Hindpiri middle school watch the telecast in
Ranchi on Friday. (Prashant Mitra)

TT, Ranchi, Sept. 5: Power pangs and cable snags marred the Prime Minister’s pathshala on Teachers’ Day as a little over 50 per cent of the total 2,800 government and private schools in Ranchi tuned in today.

District education officer Shivcharan Marandi said 92 of the 165 state-run high schools had confirmed attendance, adding that a detailed report would be sought from each tomorrow. Jayant Mishra, district education superintendent, said arrangements for live telecast could be made in around 1,200 schools while students elsewhere heard Narendra Modi’s address on radios.

But, as students and teachers sat glued for PM’s class, scheduled from 3pm, their enthusiasm was consumed by a 30-minute cable blackout. The glitch was reported by subscribers of GTPL cable service provider, headquartered ironically in Ahmedabad, the largest city of Modi’s home state Gujarat.

“I didn’t go to play today because I was excited about the PM’s interaction with students. We missed more than half of his speech,” rued Class V student of St Xavier’s School, Bariatu, Gagandeep Singh.

Babloo Bhagat, a GTPL operator in Ranchi, attributed the snag to vandalism in Purulia, Bengal. “Live feeds reach us from our headquarters in Ahmedabad via Purulia. Someone cut the cables. We managed to fix the telecast hitch by 4pm,” he said.

Power cut also marred telecast in some Ranchi cradles. At Balkrishna High School near Shaheed Chowk, where around 200 students and teachers had assembled, PM’s live class was disrupted for 15 minutes from 3.45pm.

Glitches aside, it was a memorable day for most schools that joined Modi ki pathshala.

At Hindpiri middle school, wheelchair-bound fourth grader Md Arsh clapped in excitement every time the PM shared an anecdote. Classmate Rohit Das beamed that he liked Modi’s address to students as “bal mitron (young friends).”

According to school principal Amar Kant Pathak, this Teachers’ Day was uniquely dedicated to students.

“Of our 307 students, 250 turned up. We hadn’t forced anyone though. In the morning, we celebrated with cultural programmes and lunch, and then watched the PM speak. We have a television in our school and also projectors sourced through donations for introducing smart classes. There was no logistics problem,” he said.

A daylong survey revealed that at least half a dozen government schools in Tharpakhna and Kantatoli areas did not participate at all. Two upgraded middle schools in Tharpakhna and the Chotanagpur Girls’ High School showed deserted campuses because of Karma festivities.

“Two teachers had come to school around noon, but there were no students. So, they left,” said an elderly woman whose house is close to one of the upgraded middle schools.

While many government schools in the state capital grappled with technology handicap, their cousins in the national capital were way ahead.

Elaborate arrangements were made by state schools in New Delhi, with a few even putting saffron canopy and large LCD screens. At Kendriya Vidyalaya in Gole Market, where nearly 2,000 children had assembled, refreshment packets with vegetable sandwich, potato chips and fruit juice were distributed.