Govt-run schools in Guj edu minister's home town in bad shape, says Sisodia

Ahmedabad: Delhi Education Minister and AAP leader Manish Sisodia on Monday visited two state-run schools in Gujarat's Bhavnagar, the hometown of state education minister Jitu Vaghani, and claimed that they are in bad shape with their walls covered in cobwebs and toilets stinking while 'guest teachers' are managing them on a salary that is renewed monthly.

Targeting the BJP and seeking to highlight the "Delhi model of education" ahead of Gujarat polls, Sisodia said the ruling party in Gujarat has done little to improve the condition of government-run schools despite being at the helm for the last 27 years.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader alleged that the BJP played with the future of the country by leaving schools in such poor condition.

"Right from the gallery up to the classroom, there was not a single corner without cobwebs like one finds in a junkyard (in the two state-run schools in Bhavnagar). Toilets stank. Guest teachers are employed at these schools on a salary that was renewed every month," he told reporters here after visiting the schools in Bhavnagar, 170 km away from Ahmedabad. He said toilets in the two schools stank so bad that it was impossible to stand there even for a moment. He said it was difficult to expect the children to study and for a woman teacher to teach in such a situation.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted: "It is very sad to see this plight of government schools. It's been 75 years since we got independence. We could not afford a good education. Why? How will India progress if every child does not get the best education?"

Sisodia said some parents told him that Jitu Vaghani's family ran a private school-cum-college very well.

"It is a very big failure of BJP...either the BJP does not intend to improve the condition of government schools, or its minister does not intend to run a government school properly," he alleged.

Quoting a statement of Vaghani during the Gujarat Assembly session, Sisodia said 13,000 government schools do not have computers, and 700 schools have only one teacher each.

Sisodia said that BJP deployed its MPs in Delhi to inspect government schools, "but they could not find a single school where they could say, 'look at these schools, covered in cobwebs, without teaching facilities, no water.

The Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP is showcasing changes it has brought in the education sector in Delhi and assuring to replicate them in Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a BJP bastion, where elections are due in December this year.

The AAP is looking to contest all 182 Assembly seats in Gujarat by presenting itself as a viable alternative to both the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress.

Notably, Vaghani had said at a public function that those who do not like schools in Gujarat should collect their children's school leaving certificates and go to whichever state they find better.

Sisodia, who had recently challenged Vaghani for a debate on school education, claimed the AAP government in Delhi changed the face of government schools after Arvind Kejriwal became its chief minister.