New Delhi: The Congress party Tuesday released a ‘post-mortem report’ on the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government’s education model, and accused the AAP of not spending nearly 46% of the Delhi government’s education budget.
Addressing a press conference Tuesday, party’s state unit chief Subhash Chopra said when the Congress came to power, the budget set aside for education was ₹886 crore, which was increased to ₹5,912 crore by the time the party demitted power.
Compared to the Congress regime, in the last five years, even though the education budget of the AAP government went up to ₹26,577 crore, only ₹12,243 crore was utilised, Chopra alleged.
“The (Arvind) Kejriwal government has spent more money on advertisements rather than improving the education standard of government schools. This government has only helped contractors by whitewashing classrooms made during the Congress regime,” Chopra said.
Former Delhi’s education minister Arvinder Singh Lovely, who was also present at the press conference, said while the AAP government was claiming that their education model was among the best that the city has ever had, why was it that over 1.32 lakh students had dropped out of Delhi government schools in the last four years.
“The number of EWS (economically weaker section) students has come down from 25,000 to 19,879. During the Congress regime, 140,534 students studied in class 12, and the number has now come down to 114,176, which is a reduction of 18.75%,” Lovely said.
{{/usCountry}}“The number of EWS (economically weaker section) students has come down from 25,000 to 19,879. During the Congress regime, 140,534 students studied in class 12, and the number has now come down to 114,176, which is a reduction of 18.75%,” Lovely said.
{{/usCountry}}He added, “The Delhi government has stopped the payment made to EWS category children.”
Delhi Congress spokesperson also hit out at the AAP said it was not just the students who were suffering under the current government, but teachers and principals as well.
“Nearly 500 posts of principals in government schools are lying vacant, even when Kejriwal had made the hollow promise that he would open 500 new schools,” he alleged.
The AAP did not react to the allegations.