While introducing the programme, Union Minister for Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar said that the Ministry of HRD has taken a number of initiatives to provide holistic education. He said that with a vision of Sabko Shiksha Acchi Shiksha, the Government is committed to provide quality education to the students. He also informed that 12-14 crore persons will be watching the programme live.Union Minister for Science & Technology & Earth Sciences Dr. Harsh Vardhan and Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development Dr. Satya Pal Singh also graced the occasion. Smt. Rina Ray, Secretary, DoSE&L and other senior officials from MHRD were also present during the event.
The interaction lasted for over ninety minutes and the Prime Minister took questions from 18 participants including students, teachers and parents.
Arrangements were made for live telecast of the programme in all Government and CBSE Schools and Higher Education Institutions/Colleges of the Country and abroad. 11cr students in 10.5 lakh government schools watched the programme live. Additionally, 1.97 cr students of 2.65 lakh CBSE affiliated schools in the country; and 6.2 lakh students and teachers in 226 CBSE affiliated schools abroad also witnessed the interaction live.
This year, students from 24 States/ UTs participated in the programme. A total of 2200 students were present at Talkatora Stadium, out of which 1700 school students were outstation while 500 students were from the Delhi-NCR region. The students from Delhi included 200 students of private schools while 500 college students from across the country also participated in the programme today at Talkatora Stadium.
An online competition was organized from 7th January to 17th January, 2019, for students of classes 9 to 12, graduate and undergraduate college students, their parents and their teachers for selecting all those who will interact with the Prime Minister this year. They participated through www.mygov.in website on the following themes:-
On the MyGov portal, total 1,02,173 took part in the online contest and the details of the same were forwarded to all the States and UTs where the final selection of 2000 participants was made by a selection committee formed at each State/UT level.
For the first time, Indian students residing abroad from countries like Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Russia, , Japan, Libya, Kenya, Malaysia, Oman, Tanzania, Thailand, UAE, Ghana, Liberia Nigeria, Iran, Nepal, Doha, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore were connected to the programme live.
A short film on initiatives taken by the Ministry of HRD was shown highlighting the steps taken since last years’ Pariksha Par Charcha, to reduce exam related stress.
