Narendra Modi connects his office to classrooms across the country, says educating girls is priority

Both the setting, the Manekshaw Centre in Delhi, and the script were new but the idea is vintage Modi: reaching out to people over the heads of those who think they are — or should be — the mediators. So even if it was Teachers’ Day, he hardly spent much time on them other than saying that India could export teaching talent to the rest of the world and focused more on answering students’ questions for the better part of his 120-minute programme beamed live in over 18 lakh government and private schools in the country with 1,000 students present at the venue.

Most of the children were between eight and 14 — they add up to an estimated 12 crore across the country.

“Educating girls is my priority,” Modi said, pointing out that girls drop out of schools by the time they reach Class 3 or 4. “They drop out just because schools don’t have separate toilets for them. They don’t feel comfortable,” he said, reiterating a point he made during his Independence Day address, of building toilets across the country. “We should concentrate on girl students not quitting schools,” he added.

Modi’s responses to children’s questions were spontaneous and laced with personal anecdotes and social messages. When a student from Manipur asked how he could become Prime Minister, Modi advised him to “start preparing for the 2024…till then I have no threat.”

“That is the beauty of our democracy and our Constitution-makers, “ he said. “Anybody can become the Prime Minister if you win the confidence and love of the people…I hope you will call me for your swearing-in.”

Were he a teacher, what type of students would he like, asked a student. An intelligent but a lazy one or one who was average but hardworking? “A good teacher does not discriminate on the basis of ability. Like a mother who treats all children alike, a teacher should also not discriminate on the basis of ability or super ability,” Modi said.

The Prime Minister said children should develop responsibility towards nature and the environment by conserving power, water and other natural resources.

A girl asked Modi about the change between the CM and the PM’s work. “Only the responsibility is a little more. In the person’s life, there is no change. I continue to rise early and work till late in the night. But there is one difference. One or two words here and there would make no difference in the state. But I will have to worry that no harm is caused to the country. I have to be conscious,” he said.

“Politics is not a profession, it should be treated as a service…The people of India are my family,” he said in response to another question. Claiming he never contested an election in school even to be the class monitor, the Prime Minister said he had never thought he would occupy this position one day.

Terming himself a “hard taskmaster”, in response to a question, Modi said he believed in making people work hard, while working harder himself.

The speech also saw Modi wonder why students were no longer aspiring to become teachers, even as he said the country needed good teachers, adding India should be able to export top quality teachers to the rest of the world.

Asked what kind of a person he is in real life, he replied, “I am yet to discover myself. I have not been able to know who I am. I am not able to decide who I am.”

One student asked what kind of mischief he used to indulge in during childhood. He confessed to stapling clothes of a man and a woman standing next to each other during a wedding and distracting a ‘shehnai’ player by showing him tamarind which would make his mouth water disrupting the performance.