the goan I network
PANAJI
Director of Education Vandana Rao IAS has directed “Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat” (EBSB) clubs in school to meet “at least once a week.”
In a circular issued to all heads of institutes on January 17, Rao has directed schools to constitute EBSB clubs, and make sure that they meet at least once a week in keeping with a previous circular which has directed that EBSB activities be conducted in schools in the State throughout the academic year.
Essentially, the Prime Minister’s EBSB initiative is intended on cultural exchange between the different States and Union Territories of India. Goa has been paired with Jharkhand for EBSB. According to DoE directives, all activities need to be carried out in Hindi.
Said Rao in the circular, “The aim of the club shall be to propagate language, culture of the paired State through the activities suggested in the guidelines. There shall be one EBSB club in each school having students as members and the members of the club should meet at least once a week.”
As with all other ‘Prime Minister activity’ that State schools are made to undertake, schools have to upload proof of EBSB activities too. The Department has provided a link on which details of the club constituted need to be sent before the end of January 2020.
Further, schools must also upload photos/reports/videos of the programmes conducted so far under EBSB on the link.
Four years after the Prime Minister launched the EBSB programme back in October 2015, the DoE in Goa issued a circular to schools stating that the initiative needed to “take off in the right spirit and direction.” .
The DoE says that EBSB activities should be integrated with regular school activities without any need for extra classes. Being rather vague, a previous circular had stated that “adequate publicity” be given to activities to be conducted under EBSB and “innovative and effective” ways be used to reach out to the “larger community.”
The pairing of States will continue upto June 30 this year. The schools are required to maintain a report on activities conducted under “EBSB” in the form of a quarterly and annual school report. The schools are to maintain a separate display board where photographs of activities conducted by the school under “EBSB” are to be displayed along with a small caption. These reports along with atleast two photos and one short video of each activity need to be sent to the concerned State Nodal Officer.
