While most students answer roll calls with "yes sir" or "present madam" in schools, the BJP-led Madhya Pradesh government has made it a rule to respond by saying "Jai Hind." The order was issued by the state education department and will be implemented from July 1.
The order, dated May 15, was signed by Deputy Secretary of School Education Department Pramod Singh, as reported by Press Trust of India. Here's an excerpt:
It has now been made compulsory for all 1.22 lakh government schools in the state to answer attendance roll calls by saying Jai Hind instead of yes sir/ma'am. This is the decision taken by state government to instill patriotism among students.
According to the school education department, the proposal stated that the current practice of "Yes Sir, yes Madam" does not instill any sort of patriotism within students, hence it should be replaced with "Jai Hind," Times of India reported.
Although the order does not mention private schools in the state, school education minister Vijay Shah believes that the advisory will also be issued for private schools at the start of the new academic session. "The slogan first used by the soldiers of Azad Hind Fauz during their fight for Indian independence will instill a sense of patriotism," Shah was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.
"In the past six months, we saw improvement in the body language of the students. Earlier, they used to mark attendance by saying 'yes sir', 'Ji sir', 'upasthit hai sir' and often they used to laugh and giggle during the roll call. Now they are in full attention while saying Jai Hind," Rajesh Tripathi, a teacher from Manjhgawan government school in Satna told HT.
The move to impose the new method of answering roll calls came to light after the school education department got the green signal from state chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
