If sloganeering could improve edu system, it would have in last 70 years: CM Kejriwal

New Delhi: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday gave a cutting reply to BJP workers as they tried to disrupt his address at the inauguration of Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University’s (GGSIPU) East Campus in the Surajmal Vihar area. The CM pointed out that if sloganeering had to do any good to education, the country wouldn’t have suffered for 70 years.

Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal jointly inaugurated the east Delhi campus of Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (GGSIPU)

The campus is equipped with two nine and seven-story academic blocks, a central library, an incubation centre, lecture theatres, modern classrooms, an auditorium, an indoor sports hall, and a residential complex.

During his address, Kejriwal was speaking about the Delhi government’s school education model when a section of the audience started chanting “Modi, Modi” slogans.. Kejriwal, folded his hands and appealed to the crowd to maintain calm. However, despite his plea, the slogans persisted and the CM then requested the audience to lend their ears for five minutes, saying that he respects their right to disagree with him. He remarked that if the education system could have improved solely through slogans, significant progress would have been made over the past 70 years.

However, after a brief respite, the disturbances resumed and Kejriwal said that a meaningful conversation cannot take place amidst such chaos. In a democracy, every individual holds the right to be heard, he said.

When Atishi addressed the audience she too was interrupted and she said,“This is why education is important — so that people don’t interrupt academic programs like this.”

In his speech the CM Kejriwal explained that children will be taught automation,

design, artificial intelligence, machine learning, data management, and innovation and more than 2,400 students can benefit from the facilities

available at the new campus.

He further said that the government has added 40,000 seats in the last 7-8 years with plans to add an additional 1,00,000 seats in the near future. Kejriwal dedicated the East Campus of the GGSIP University to the nation and said that the facilities provided over here are some of the best in the country.

The students from across the country will come and live in the area which will give opportunities for hostels and paying guest facilities, shops and restaurants will also increase in the areas as a consequence of the university. “So, therefore there will be a cascading effect of the university being built over here in the entire region. This entire vidhan sabha constituency will benefit a lot economically,” he said.

The Delhi CM said that roughly 1.5 lakh of students complete their schooling in government schools and the remaining in private schools. “When we formed the government for the first time in 2015, we did some analysis and found out that for around 1.1 lakh of these children, there are college seats within the city. So, there was a deficit of around 1.4 lakh children. In the last 7-8 years, we have been able to increase the number of college seats from 1.1 lakh to 1.5 lakh. So, we still have a deficit of 1 lakh college seats, and we are working to address the problem,” he said.

The CM in his speech also slammed British bureaucrat Lord Macaulay for creating an education system that still exists, merely to churn out educated clerks.

“Prior to that there was another system of education that I have heard about which was very successful. There were acharyas in every village and the children of the peasants studied together with the children of the king,” he said.

He added that the British in the 1830s supplanted the Indian education system with their own, not to enlighten the natives, but to raise educated clerks to help the

foreign bureaucracy ruling the country.

The Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University’s east Delhi campus has become the latest flashpoint between the AAP-led city government and Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena, with both sides claiming the right to inaugurate the newly built campus.