Lashing out at Arvind Kejriwal led Delhi Government for their open lies about the so called successful education system being run by the Aam Aadmi Party, Punjab Education Minister Pargat Singh on Wednesday asked if you have a such ‘wonderful’ system then why there posts of principals and vice-principals lying vacant in 760 and 479 schools respectively besides having shortage of 41 percent non-teaching staff in Delhi Schools.
AllHe asked the Delhi Education Minister Munish Sisodia that what he wanted to hide by not providing the requisite list of schools.During a press conference here, Punjab Education Minister described the Delhi’s Education System ‘a bubble of water’ and said the comparison of a border state Punjab with National Capital was totally unfounded. Punjab is an agrarian state whereas Delhi is a municipal city so the comparison between these was wrong in entirety, said Pargat Singh adding that imparting quality education in border areas had always been a challenge. On the basis of circumstances of both states, the comparison is illogical, he added.
On Munish Sisodia’s entry to a school’s store for their vested political interest, the Education Minister said that he never expected such a low and cheap political tactics from Sisodia. ‘I believe in healthy discussion and fruitful debate,” said the Minister while lashing out at AAP leaders and workers as the way they entered in a school amid the expected third wave of COVID terming that their act could endanger the health of students.Daring Kejriwal and Sisodia for a comparison of education reforms in Delhi during last eight years and in Punjab in last five years, the Education Minister said that Punjab had lot of other crucial responsibilities like law & order, agriculture, industry, urban and rural development etc but on the other hand the Delhi Government had only a very few sectors namely Education and Health etc. Delhi has a revenue surplus, which needs not to incur much on law & order, agriculture etc and the pensions of its employees are given by the Centre itself, he added.Punjab has a whooping debt to the tune of Rs. 2.75 lakh crore, said Pargat Singh adding that there were nearly 20,000 schools in Punjab having a big difference in number of schools in Delhi.
It is a colossal task to ensure quality education in the far-flung border and rural areas as well as kandi region besides setting up requisite infrastructure but despite that the Punjab Government had taken several path-breaking endeavours to provide all the facilities and infrastructure in such areas. He said that Delhi had not facing such challenges and imparting quality education over there is not that huge task as compare to circumstances of Punjab.As both Kejriwal & Sisodia are criticising the education system of Punjab, Pargat Singh also highlighted the reforms brought in the system. He said that during the last five years 41,000 smart class rooms had been constructed in nearly 13,000 schools. Punjab has student-techer ratio of 24:1 as compare to Delhi’s 35:1, said Pargat Singh adding that there was only four percent schools in Punjab having less teachers against the recommendations of RTE while the ratio on this count in the Delhi is 15 percent.The Minister said that Punjab schools had registered a record increase in the admissions respectively 5 percent, 14 percent and 14 percent, which was biggest ever increase in the country’s history. Moreover, the results of board classes are also improved during the last three years. The State has also formed a separate cadre for the border district of Tarn Taran, which ensured needful staff in the schools of border area.
Punjab is the only state which regularised the services of Sarv Siksha Abhiyaan, said the Minister adding that nearly 9000 teachers had been recruited since last four years and the number of recruitment would go to 20,000 till December end.Listing other achievements, the Minister said that Punjab had also sent its teachers to Indian School of Business and Canada for training to further sharpen their professional skills besides ensuring the transparent online system of transfer thus transferring 29,000 teachers through their online applications. The Education Department has also initiated several administrative reforms to facilitate the teaching fraternity, which are being run successfully. Punjab has secured first position in the National Grading of PGI in 2021 while Delhi is at sixth position whereas Punjab was at 23rd position and Delhi at 4th in the previous survey.
PARGAT SINGH QUESTIONS KEJRIWAL-SISODIA
The Education Minister asked the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Delhi counterpart Munish Sisodia that if the Delhi Education model is the best then why the number of students in Government schools decreasing and getting high in private schools. Why the result of 10th class is bad than the result during Sheila Dikshit’s Government. How many new schools have been opened by Delhi Government? When Kejriwal is regularising the services of over 22,000 guest faculty? Why 42 percent permanent posts of teachers are lying vacant in Delhi schools? Why the Aam Aadmi Party’s Government didn’t recruit a single teacher since its formation? How many sarv shiksha abhiyaan teachers have been regularised by the Delhi Government? What is the online transfer policy of Delhi Government for teachers?
