Govt schools in Punjab are in bad shape: Kejri

Chandigarh, Dec. 12: Scaling up the inter-state spat on school education, AAP leader and Delhi Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday said government schools in Punjab are in a bad shape and sought people’s support to bring his party to power in the state to improve the condition of the educational institutions. “In Punjab, the state of education is very bad. Government schools are in a bad shape. There is no study at all in government schools. Punjab’s teachers are very good, but they are sad. In government schools in Punjab, 24 lakh students from poor, Dalit, SC community study. Think about what is the future of these children?? Kejriwal said in a video message. Punjab goes to polls early next year and Aam Aadmi Party is looking to wrest power from the ruling Congress.

Notably, ruling Congress and AAP leaders have in recent weeks exchanged barbs on the state of education in their schools in Punjab and Delhi.

Earlier this month, Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi had called his Delhi counterpart Kejriwal a “power greedy outsider” who wants to rule the state and accused him of misleading Punjabis. In his video message, in which he spoke in Punjabi, Kejriwal said earlier the condition of government schools in Delhi was also pitiable, ‘but we improved their condition’.

“Now, those schools have improved to such a level that this year 2.5 lakh students of Delhi shifted from private schools to take admission in our government schools,” he said.

“Shouldn’t Punjab government schools be good like Delhi? But Channi sahib says that Punjab schools are very good when compared to the nationallevel and there is no need to improve them,” he said.

Mr Kejriwal asked the people whether they thought Punjab’s government schools were the best in India.