Punjab Education Minister Vijay Inder Singla on Sunday said Delhi Education Minister Manish Sisodia should first check facts regarding the status of “Learning Level and Quality” parameter in the “Performance Grading Index” released by the Union government before politicising the issue.
“Delhi Education Minister Sisodia and his political party has become so scarred with the achievement of Punjab in the field of school education that he has started misleading people with false and illogical statements,” said Mr. Singla, adding that Mr. Sisodia had said Punjab had performed badly in the “Learning Level and Quality” in the recent “Performance Grading Index”.
“But the fact is that if Punjab’s performance is poor then the performance of Delhi schools under the same parameter is even poorer — Delhi has scored 124 marks and Punjab 126 in the National Achievement Survey conducted in 2017,” said Mr. Singla. Mr. Sisodia should have verified facts that when the National Achievement Survey (NAS) was conducted in 2017, the Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi had already completed more than two years in power while the Congress government in Punjab was just a few months old.
“Besides, as the NAS could not be conducted in November 2020 due to the pandemic, Punjab had to be satisfied with the old performance. But this time Punjab was fully prepared and had the NAS been conducted, its schools would have also achieved top rank in this parameter too. Punjab has never given political tinge to its movement to bring in qualitative improvement in education.”
Misleading propaganda
Mr. Singla said his Delhi counterpart has been pointing fingers only at Punjab and not at Chandigarh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andaman & Nicobar which are also ahead of Delhi just because it is eyeing political mileage in the ensuing Assembly polls in Punjab by its misleading propaganda.
“Moreover, in Delhi all the 2,000 primary schools are being run by the MCD. There are three corporations and all have BJP majority and BJP Mayor. And 1,031 high and senior secondary schools are being run by the Delhi government led by the AAP. On the other hand, there are 19,000 government schools including 13,000 primary and 6,000 high and senior secondary, which are exclusively run by Punjab government. To bring in qualitative improvement, the government in collaboration with teachers and philanthropists here and abroad has succeeded in converting the drive into a mass movement, which has resulted in sprucing up of the infrastructural and quality education facilities in the government schools.”
