Mumbai: Government tells schools to celebrate World Egg Day today

Teachers and women's self-help groups are worried about how to celebrate the day as they havenu00c3u0083u00c2u00a2u00c3u0082u00c2u0080u00c3u0082u00c2u0099t been able to plan it

As if schools were not holding enough 'days' as asked by the government, they have now been told to celebrate World Egg Day. The egg-straordinary order was received by schools on Thursday, when the day has to be celebrated on the second Friday of October, which is today.

The circular has some cracked up, and has also been criticised. Teachers as well as women's self-help groups which are ground level implementers of such days, are also pondering how anotherday can be celebrated without planning or budgetary allocation.

The circular has been issued by the school education department following a suggestion from the Department of Animal Husbandry. Questions have been raised over whether it would be right to distribute eggs when there are many students who do not eat eggs or when the mid-day meals are being supplied by NGOs serving only vegetarian food.

"If the day has to be celebrated on Friday, how does it help when the orders are given on Thursday? There should have been some notice," said Prashant Redij, spokesperson for the Maharashtra Principals' Association. "It is funny how the government issues orders one after another to celebrate different days. When do schools and teachers focus on academics?" asked another principal.

A member of the committee of the Mumbai District Federation of Women Self-Help group said, "As there is no notice regarding it, we will not be able to follow the orders. More so, there are between 600-1,000 students under each women's group that caters to different schools. How do we ensure quality in providing so many eggs? It is also not possible logistically to boil all the eggs and peel them. And, there are many students who do not eat eggs. It was because of all these reasons that eggs were excluded from the mid-day meal."

When contacted, Mahesh Palkar BMC Education officer, said, "We have got an order regarding World Egg Day, and accordingly schools and food suppliers have been asked to provide eggs to students on Friday."

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