New Delhi: Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Shri Subhash Chopra, while releasing a “Postmortem Report” on the education model of the Aam Aadmi Party Government, said that it was shocking and a matter of grave concern for the people of Delhi that 46 per cent of Delhi Government’s education budget has remained unspent, though Kejriwal has been claiming that his Government’s education model was the best. Joining issue with Delhi Education Minister Manish Sisodia, Shri Chopra said that if the Delhi Government education model was applied in other States, then there too students will start leaving Government schools in hordes.
Addressing a press conference at the DPCC office, Rajiv Bhawan, along with former Delhi Education Minister Shri Arvinder Singh Lovely, chief spokesperson Shri Mukesh Sharma, ex-MLA Anil Bhardwaj and ex-councillor Khawinder Singh Captain, Shri Subhash Chopra said that the Kejriwal Government spent more money on advertisements than improving the education standards in Government schools. Shri Chopra said that in the past four years, over a lakh of children have left Government schools in Delhi due to deteriorating education standards. He said that the Kejriwal Government has done injustice and created a complex among children by dividing them into two groups, putting pressure on the children.
Shri Subhash Chopra and Shri Arvinder Singh Lovely said that the AAP Government, instead of improving the education standards, helped the contractors by white-washing the class rooms made during the Congress regime, to make it look like new ones and this scam should be probed. They said that when Congress comes to power, this corruption will be thoroughly probed. They said that when Congress came to power, the budget for education was Rs 866 crores which was raised to Rs 5912 crore when Congress demitted power. They said that in the last five years, the education budget of the Kejriwal Government went up to Rs 26,577 crore but out of this amount, only Rs 12,243.06 crore have been spent. They said that this clearly exposes that the Kejriwal Government’s achievements were confined only in newspaper advertisements to mislead the people.
Shri Subhash Chopra and Shri Arvinder Singh Lovely wondered that if the AAP model of education was so good, then why is that over 1,32,000 children have left Government schools in the last four years, though Delhi’s population has been exponentially rising? They recalled that when Congress was in power, a record eight lakh children took admission in Government schools. They said that illiteracy rate in Delhi has increased from 1.7 per cent to 3.4 per cent which clearly proves the declining standard of education in the Capital, which is very shameful. They said that 10,591 posts of TGT and PGT teachers have not yet been filled which is 65 per cent of the total strength.
Shri Arvinder Singh Lovely alleged that the number of EWS students has come down from 25,000 to 19879. He said that during the Congress regime, 1,40,534 students studied in 12th Class, and the number has now come down to 1,14,176, which 18.75 per cent reduction. He alleged that the Delhi Government has stopped the payment made to EWS category children, and demanded that a criminal case be filed against Delhi’s Education Minister.
Shri Mukesh Sharma slammed the Kejriwal Government for not filling the 500 vacant posts of principals in government schools though Kejriwal had made the hollow promise that he would open 500 new schools. He said that the AAP Government did nothing for sports in Delhi though when Congress was in power, 15 new sports complexes and 14 new swimming pools were constructed, besides opening coaching centres in 140 schools. But all these facilities have been shut down by the Kejriwal Government. Shri Sharma said that the Congress Government had constructed 232 new schools and upgraded 312 schools. He said that the Kejriwal Government could construct just 6 schools in five years, that too incomplete, while upgradation was done only in 23 schools. He said that the Board exam results were 99.45 per cent in 2013 when Congress was in power which has come down to 68.90 per cent under the Kejriwal Government.
Shri Anil Bharadwaj demanded the resignation of Education Minister Manish Sisodia for the plight of the education sector in Delhi, as the AAP Government cannot fool the people of Delhi anymore. He said that the AAP laid the foundation stone for a Sports Complex to mislead the people as the reality is that there are no sports grounds in nearly 100 Government schools in Delhi.
