New Delhi: AAP's National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal spoke on the revolutionary changes that his party will bring in the field of education in Punjab if voted to power. The Delhi CM made promises to the teachers which will be providing permanent jobs to all outsourced and contractual teachers. He also said that if the Channi Government does not accept the demands of the teachers who have been staging a dharna, then he will meet the teachers and join them in the dharna. Among the eight promises made by the CM which includes that just like Delhi, the AAP-led government in Punjab will also implement a transparent transfer policy and non-teaching work burden will be taken off teachers' shoulders.
"So just as we have transformed the government schools in Delhi, we will change the schools here in Punjab. We are the only political party who knows how to do it, who can do it, and who will do it," he said. Kejriwal added that the teachers hired under a contractual job for some 18 years now earn only Rs 10,000 a month while in the Capital the minimum wage for unskilled labour is Rs. 15,000 for a month.
He said that if AAP is voted to power it will fill vacant posts, send teachers abroad for training, bring promotion policy and provide cashless medical facilities to teachers and their families. "People of Delhi gave a chance to the Aam Aadmi Party and see how we have transformed government schools," he said. He urged all the teachers to join AAP's campaign of revolutionising Punjab and rebuilding the image of the state and said that they have given many chances to Congress and Akali Dal, but now to give a chance to the Aam Aadmi Party and see the actual work being done.
The teachers in Punjab who met Kejriwal told him about the condition of government schools which includes some of the schools that do not have a single teachers for upto grade 7 while others have only one. "24 lakh students study in these government schools, whose future is bleak given the current state of affairs in these schools. Despite this, the teachers told me that the government simply got the walls of these schools painted and wrote 'Smart School' over it. This is how they make 'smart schools'," Kejriwal said.