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A similar order had been issued by the Shajapur District Education Officer earlier.

Ujjain:

Ahead of Christmas, the District Education Officer in Madhya Pradesh’s Ujjain has issued a notice to all private schools to obtain parents’ permission before selecting students to participate in Christmas programmes.

The notice, issued on Thursday read, “The students selected by the school to take part in the programme 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.”

It further states that students should not be allowed to participate in the said event without the written permission of the parent under any circumstances. This, it said, is 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 added.

“The District Education Officer of Ujjain has issued an order under which if any programme is organised related to Santa Claus (Christmas) in the schools in the district then no dispute should arise. Also, if the programme is organised in the school then take permission from the parents of the children,” Sanjay Sharma, BRC (Block Resource Center) Ujjain urban.

Earlier, Shajapur District Education Officer also issued a notice and urged all private schools in the district to take parents’ permission before selecting students to participate in Christmas programmes.

Shajapur District Education Officer Vivek Dubey told ANI, “Cultural programmes are held in schools but the programmes 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 programmes but not make children of other religions take part in skits or fancy dress events. If it is essential then they do so only with written permission from the guardians, Mr Dubey added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)