MP: District Education Officer urges private schools to get parents' permission before children taking part in Christmas programs in Shajapur

Shajapur: Ahead of Christmas, District Education Officer in Madhya Pradesh's Shajapur has urged all private schools in the district to necessarily take parents' permission before selecting students to participate in Christmas programs.
A notice has also been issued for the same which read, "The students selected by the school to take part in the program organised on the occasion of Christmas in the school or to pose as Santa Claus, Christmas tree, and any other characters, should be done only after getting written permission from their parents."
Students should not be allowed to participate in the said event without the written permission of the parent under any circumstances. So that no unpleasant situation arises. If any kind of complaint or dispute comes to notice in this regard, ex-parte disciplinary action will be proposed against the institution, the notice further added.
District Education Officer Vivek Dubey told ANI, "Cultural programs are held in schools but the programs are a little religious and children of other faiths are also assigned religious characters to play which is not as per their own religion. Most of the time such events are held harmoniously but sometimes it leads to disputes and complaints coming to us in which a lot of time is invested to resolve the issue."
To ensure that such disputes do not take place in the future, all institutions have been urged to conduct religious programs but not make children of other religions indulge in skits or fancy dress events. If it is essential then they do so only with written permission from the guardians, Dubey added.