Swaraj India on Saturday took on the AAP government in Delhi over its claims on improving the education system in the capital, accusing the Kejriwal regime of not fulfilling the promises it had made in its manifesto and making false claims about the work done in the sector.
Swaraj India leader Yogendra Yadav accused the Delhi government of making tall claims in the field of education, which included doubling the budget for the sector.
Yadav said that the Delhi government's claim that it had more than doubled the education budget, raising it by 106 per cent, in its first budget, was a myth. He said only the budget's planned component had been hiked to Rs 4,570 crore from the previous year's Rs 2,219 crore, which is an increase of 106 per cent. “So, the actual planned expenditure on education in Delhi went up by 37 per cent,” he said.
Swaraj India, as part of its Jawaab Do, Hisaab Do campaign—a precursor to its campaign for the coming municipal polls in the capital—raised questions based on the AAP's education manifesto for the Delhi Assembly elections, charging the Kejriwal government with not fulfilling any of the promises.
“Where are all the new schools?” Yadav asked, pointing out that AAP had promised to build 500 new schools. In 2014-15, there were 1,007 schools run by the Delhi government, and by the end of 2015-16, there were 1,011, he said.
“Only four new schools were constructed in the entire year. This is much lower than what the previous government managed in each of the last four years,” he said.
As for colleges, Swaraj India claims that Delhi had one college less at the end of 2015-16, whereas the AAP had promised building 20 new colleges.
Amongst the other points raised by the party are that the enrolment in Delhi government schools fell by 28,000, and of the 42,827 seats in the private schools under the quota meant for economically backward sections, as many as 24,372 were unoccupied.
It also claimed that the government gave only three loans of Rs 3.15 lakh under its higher education and skill guarantee scheme, but made an expenditure of Rs 30 lakh to advertise the scheme.
Swaraj India also charged the AAP with reneging on its promise of abolition of contractual employment of teachers, saying 44 per cent of the teaching positions in Delhi government schools are either vacant or serviced by temporary teachers. It has also raised strong objection to the “authoritarian manner” in which the government has been dealing with the concerns of guest teachers. “The government has gone to the extent of dismissing the teachers who raised their demands before the education minister,” Yadav said.
