Notwithstanding the raging controversy over Saraswati vandana, the State Government has made vandana and Vande Mataram compulsory for the students of primary and junior high schools.

The State Government has also laid down the day's schedule for the students. The morning session would commence with Vandana and conclude with Vande Mataram while the day would finally end with the National Anthem ...

Even as the Opposition parties as well as the partners of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party were taking the Government to task on its education agenda, the State Government was imparting training to its officers.

It has been named as the 'Kalpa yojana'. A training programme for the school principals and teachers would also begin soon ... The Minister of State for Primary Education, Mr. Ravindra Kumar Shukla ... said "there was no question of backtracking".

The State Government is going ahead with the introduction of the new curriculum from next year. The preparations are on. Even Sanskrit has been made compulsory from class three to eighth.

A book committee, headed by the Director of the SCERT, which functions under the guidance of NCERT, was rewriting about 25 books.

"We are not deleting any chapter but adding a few more", the Minister said.

To ensure that the schools were following their directives on Vande Mataram and Vandana which includes placing a picture of Saraswati, the goddess of education, is being monitored by a special cell ...                                       (Source: The Hindustan Times, 30October, 1998)