The Delhi Congress on Thursday attacked the Aam Aadmi Party government’s claim of having improved education services, saying that growth in school enrolment had decreased and over ₹1,900 crore in the budget allowed to lapse.
‘People misled’
Delhi Congress president Ajay Maken said the government had spent a lot on advertisements about “claiming to make revolutionary changes” in the education sector since coming to power in 2015, but had “misled people”.
Using data from annual budgets, statistical handbooks and other official records, the Congress released its “expose” of the claims. Mr. Maken said despite adding about 5,000 new classrooms in government schools, the pass percentage and enrolment were falling.
“If there are 40 students in a classroom and with 5,000 new classrooms, the enrolment should have gone up by two lakh. Instead, nearly one lakh students left government schools in Delhi in the past two years, while 1.42 lakh joined private schools,” he said.
He added that while the population of Delhi had an average growth of 2.42%, the growth of senior secondary schools was at a low of 0.60%. In 2013-2014, there were 17.75 lakh students in government schools, decreasing to 17.04 lakh in 2014-2015 and further to 16.77 lakh in 2015-2016.
The Congress also refuted the AAP government’s statement that Class XII results had been the best ever this year, saying that fewer students were actually appearing and passing the exams.
Hitting out at the government over its education budget, Mr. Maken said a total of ₹1,982 crore was allowed to lapse in the past two financial years. He said while 4.81% of the education budget was unspent in 2013-2014, the last budget presented by the Congress government, the AAP government had not spent 13.55% of the budget in 2015-2016.
