Capt, Sisodia in war of words over state of school education
A bitter war of words has erupted between Punjab chief minister (CM) Capt Amarinder Singh and Delhi deputy CM and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Manish Sisodia over the Performance Grading Index 2019-20.
In the performance grading index of school education released by the Centre on June 5, Punjab topped the chart with a score of 929 out of 1,000, followed by Chandigarh (912) and Tamil Nadu (906). Whereas Delhi is at number six in these rankings.
While Sisodia, who is also the Delhi education minister, on Saturday alleged a “secret” friendship between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amarinder, the latter said the AAP was crying foul in the face of its imminent wipeout from Punjab in the 2022 assembly polls.
Sisodia claimed that Punjab’s government schools are in a “miserable state” yet the Central report says that the schools are outstanding. “This shows ‘jugalbandi’ between two leaders,” he added.
“Captain (Amarinder Singh) has got the blessings of Modiji. Delhi’s schools have been ranked much below. Nearly 800 government schools in Punjab have been shut down in the last five years and many schools have been handed over to private entities but Punjab has been ranked on the top,” he said.
Sisodia alleged that Punjab’s government schools have poor educational facilities for students and parents prefer to send their children to private institutes. The index is an effort to hide the incompetence of the Punjab government in the field of school education, alleged the AAP leader.
“Maybe later, the government might release a report saying
Punjab’s hospitals are best. There is a secret friendship between Modiji and Captain,” Sisodia added.
Ridiculing the allegations, Amarinder said the AAP leadership was so obsessed with electoral politics that it saw poll conspiracies even in something as basic as school education.
The fact was that the AAP, which had failed to make a dent in Punjab’s political arena over the past over four years, beginning with its poor performance in the 2017 elections, could see the rout, which it was facing in 2022, he added.
“Come to Punjab and I will show you around our schools. Revamp of the state’s schools was an exercise undertaken by the Congress government as a top priority, and the Performance Grading Index reflected the success of those efforts,” said Amarinder.
“If you are really interested in improving the education system of Delhi, maybe you should do a ‘jugalbandi’ with me, and I will teach you how to manage things better,” Amarinder said.
“From a ranking of 22 on the earlier index that was in place when I took over as CM to Number 1 on the scale, Punjab’s school education has undergone a massive transformation,” the CM said.
“Your political dialogues cannot undermine this success,” he said, terming Sisodia’s comments as an obvious case of sour grapes.
Meanwhile, Punjab school education minister Vijay Inder Singla said teachers and staff of the Punjab education department have worked hard to bring the state to the top position. He added that it also helped increase around 15% enrolment in government schools. “More than three lakh private school students have shifted to government schools in the past two years,” Singla said.