'Concerned over language': Dharmendra Pradhan on Arvind Kejriwal’s ‘junkyard’ comment

NEW DELHI: Taking a jibe at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s ‘junkyard’ comment regarding government schools, Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan expressed concern over the kind of language being used in the world of education. The minister was addressing the cabinet meeting with sports minister Anurag Thakur today. The Cabinet has given approval to the Prime Minister Schools for Rising India (PM SHRI) scheme with a budget of Rs 27,360 crore today.

Also Read | Delhi LG asks Arvind Kejriwal to release Rs 212 crore education grant 'pending' for 2 years

Pradhan first thanked the teachers who were felicitated with the National Awards to Teachers on Teachers Day 2022 for taking care of the schools as well as students way better than their own homes.

Presenting some ‘facts’ on the table, Pradhan said that Delhi’s expenditure is less than other states as the union government takes care of the expenditure. Pointing out to the Aam Aadmi Party, the education minister said that the enrolment ratio in government schools has reduced since "these people" came into power.

NAS 2021, model schools

Pradhan said that when AAP was contesting for elections in 2015, it had said in its manifesto that it will build 500 model schools. Referring to a page of India Today dated August 29, Pradhan said that according to an Right To Information (RTI), only 63 such schools have been started, leave alone 500.

Further commenting on the qualitative status of the schools in Delhi, the Union education minister referred to the results of the National Assessment Survey (NAS) 2021 and said that the government schools in Delhi scored much less than the national average in all classes which were assessed.

Also Read | Around 11% Class 3 students cannot do basic maths: Education Ministry Study

Dharmendra Pradhan finally stated that a party which in its reign, despite having funds, is not appointing principals, cannot open schools and provide salaries is calling schools as junkyards. “Therefore, I don’t take these ‘bayanveer’ seriously,” he said.

Kejriwal wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleging that more than 80 per cent of government schools in the country are worse than junkyards. Continuing from Tuesday when he had termed the prime minister's decision to modernise 14,500 schools "a drop of water in the ocean", Kejriwal again pushed for a plan to upgrade all 10 lakh government schools in the country.

PM Modi recently announced that 14,500 schools across the country would be developed and upgraded under the 'PM-SHRI Yojana'.