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BJP made a mess of municipal schools, tarnishing Delhi’s image: Sisodia
New Delhi: Delhi education minister Manish Sisodia on Sunday said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled civic bodies have made a “mess” of the municipal schools citing the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) report for 2019-20, adding that it was “tarnishing Delhi’s image”
New Delhi: Delhi education minister Manish Sisodia on Sunday said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled civic bodies have made a “mess” of the municipal schools citing the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) report for 2019-20, adding that it was “tarnishing Delhi’s image”.
The report released on July 1 was put together by the Union education ministry. According to the report, only 50% of the schools operated by Delhi’s municipal corporations are following the pupil, teacher ratio (PTR) as mandated by the Right to Education (RTE) Act. Comparatively, 98% Delhi government schools maintain the RTE mandated PTR, Sisodia added.
According to the RTE Act, the PTR at primary and upper primary levels should be 30:1 and 35:1, respectively.
The report stated that Delhi has 55,486 primary teachers for over 1,811,723 students enrolled across public and private schools -- an overall PTR of a little over 32.
“The BJP government at the Centre has corroborated that the party ruled MCDs have made a mess of the municipal schools in Delhi. The mismanagement is so stark that MCD schools are considered the worst in the country. This is tarnishing the image of Delhi...While 98% of the Delhi government schools have maintained the RTE mandated PTR, 58% of East MCD schools, 46% of North MCD schools and 39% of South MCD schools are not following it. This establishes the fact that the BJP-ruled MCDs haven’t been able to provide teachers to their students. This is putting Delhi’s reputation at stake,” Sisodia, who is also deputy chief minister of Delhi, said during a press conference, citing findings of the report.
Sisodia said Arvind Kejriwal government in Delhi government is building world class infrastructure and providing all the basic facilities in its schools, recruiting teachers and sending them to foreign countries for training, and launching a new-age curriculum for holistic development of students. “However, the BJP hasn’t been able to provide teachers and basic facilities in the MCD schools,” the deputy chief minister said.
The BJP blamed the Delhi government for not releasing funds to the civic bodies leading to the shortage of teachers.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the BJP are locked in a war of words over the alleged corruption and financial mismanagement of the municipal corporations. Though the BJP leaders maintains that the Delhi government was deliberately depriving the civic bodies of funds, the AAP has said that it owes nothing to the MCDs. Municipal elections are due in Delhi next year.
“BJP leaders need to look beyond the ‘WhatsApp University’ and feel ashamed of the deteriorating conditions of MCD schools due to 20 years of their mismanagement. The Delhi government has left no stones unturned in improving the conditions of its schools which is also reflected in the UDISE report. But BJP leaders keep falsely accusing Arvind Kejriwal rather than focusing on improving the MCD schools,” Sisodia said.
Responding to Sisodia’s allegations, BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor cited “financial problems” and “lack of funds” as the main reasons behind the problem. “The central government’s report which Delhi deputy CM Manish Sisodia has cited to say that MCD Schools have a poor PTR, has many other aspects where MCD schools are performing better than the Delhi government schools. With every passing year, the number of students in MCD schools has been increasing. Compared to this, the number of students in Delhi government schools has been going down every year. This clearly shows which schools are performing better,” Kapoor alleged.
“As far as low PTR is concerned, the Delhi government is withholding funds of MCDs as a result of which teacher recruitment is suffering,” he added.
The UDISE which was initiated in 2012-13 by the education ministry is one of the largest management information systems on school education, covering more than 1.5 million schools, 8.5 million teachers and 25 million children. The UDISE+ is an updated and improved version of UDISE.
