Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur on Wednesday hit back at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on his letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleging that more than 80 per cent Government schools in the country are worse than junkyards.“It's unfortunate when those busy with "sharabkhana" (liquor stores) call schools a kabadkhana (junkyard),” Thakur said.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, too, said it was unfortunate that Kejriwal compared Government schools with junkyards and dubbed him as "Bayan Bahadur" who should not be taken seriously.
Briefing reporters after a Cabinet meeting, Pradhan and Thakur, slammed Kejriwal over his letter to Modi, demanding conversion of all Government schools in the country into model ones. Thakur said, "PM-SHREE scheme will benefit 20 lakh students through development of 14,597 model schools in the country."
Pradhan said that despite "loud mouthed" claims by the Kejriwal Government, Delhi fell behind the national average and a smaller UT like Chandigarh, in parameters of student enrolments, quality of education, opening of new schools and recruitment of new principals. "Some people have assumed issuing statements as a work for themselves. I want to call them 'Bayan Bahadur'. There are people who work and there are others who just give statements," Pradhan said replying to a question about Kejriwal's letter."Is this how you say in Hindi literature - sarkari schools are worse than kabadkhana," Pradhan added.
He expressed gratitude to teachers for maintenance of Government schools, saying they looked after the schools like their own children. "It is regrettable if a responsible person of the country, a Bayan Bahadur terms schools as kabadkhana. I am also worried that what kind of language was being used for the field of education," he said.
He said "Bayan Veer" who despite funds does not open schools and recruit principals and fails to pay salaries to employees (referring to AAP Government in Punjab), should not be taken seriously.
Pradhan claimed that after AAP came to power in 2015, enrolment in Delhi Government schools had declined and despite promising 500 model schools in its election manifesto, the AAP Government has failed to open schools.
Citing Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) and National Achievement Survey (NAS) data in which 1,602 Delhi Government schools, 10,000 teachers and 65,000 students participated, Pradhan said that Delhi schools have been suffering from quality and governance issues.
In class 3, Delhi's score was 42 as against the national average of 54. In class 5, national average was 48, while Delhi scored 37. Similarly, in class 8 national average was 38, Delhi got 37. Similarly, in class 10, the national average was 40, while Delhi scored 39.
Quality is a bigger concern in schools run by the Delhi Government that considers its work in field of education as a brownie point, said Pradhan.