-Autar Nehru

Perhaps the sole political party in India whose leadership believes that provision, upgradation and universalisation of school education is an election-winning issue is the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) which was born out of social reformer Anna Hazare’s futile anti-corruption crusade of 2012. In 2015, AAP led by former government bureaucrat Arvind Kejriwal, stunned the country by winning the Delhi state legislative assembly election bagging 67 of the 70 seats of the house, an astonishing electoral coup given that the BJP which had swept to a landslide victory in General Election 2014 held a few months earlier, was expected to sweep Delhi as well. Five years later, AAP won Delhi again with an even larger majority.

Its promise to wipe out petty corruption which is endemic in the state and local governments of the national capital (which was conferred special statehood in 1991) apart, upgrading and contemporisation of Delhi’s 1,028 state government schools with an aggregate enrolment of 1.8 million children has been a major plank of its successful election campaigns.

But the party’s commendable initiatives to expand capacity in state government schools by adding 8,000 classrooms has resulted in the Delhi Lokayukta ordering the chief secretary of the Lt. Governor’s office (i.e, the Central government) to conduct an enquiry into corruption charges levelled against Manish Sisodia, deputy chief and education minister of the AAP government.

According to Manoj Tiwari, former president of the Delhi state BJP and incumbent member of Parliament, although the estimated construction cost per classroom was Rs.5 lakh, the AAP government paid out Rs.25-28 lakh per classroom. Tiwari says this is prima facie proof of defalcation aggregating Rs.2,000 crore. When this issue was first raised publicly in 2019 Sisodia reacted sharply by filing defamation suits against Tiwari.

Unlike all other parties, the AAP leadership makes education a big issue. It prides itself for allocating 22 percent (Rs.16,278 crore) of its total budgeted expenditure for 2022-23 towards education, the highest proportion of any state countrywide. Moreover, in addition to adding 8,000 classrooms to its 1,028 schools in its second term from 2020, the AAP government has established five specialised universities including skills, sports and teacher education varsities which have an aggregate enrolment of 25,000 youth.

However, not a few academics and educationists are sceptical about the AAP government’s claims of great advances in education. According to R.C. Jain, president of the Delhi State Public Schools Management Association, of all children in class IX in state government schools only 50 percent make it to class XII, because under an unwritten policy of the government those who don’t perform well in class IX are asked to leave and enrol in NIOS as independent students to write the NIOS (National Institute of Open Schooling) board exam. “This is done to ensure that CBSE class XII board results of state government schools are 90 percent-plus,” says Jain. Moreover, he alleges that over 800 state government schools are functioning without headmasters.

BJP spokespersons and the rising number of the party’s sympathisers in academia attribute the AAP government’s foot-dragging on the issue of appointing headmasters to diversion of funds towards heavy advertising of the government’s “over-hyped achievements” in the media, especially on television. According to data available in the public domain, Delhi government’s ad spend zoomed to Rs.488.97 crore in 2021-22 from Rs.11.18 crore in 2012-13.

But even if Delhi state’s AAP government hasn’t done everything right, there’s no denying it has succeeded in placing the long-neglected subject of quality education for all (QEFA) and developing the country’s abundant and high-potential human resource on the national agenda. Nor are its initiatives to upgrade and modernise state government schools mere hype. In the latest EducationWorld India School Rankings 2021-22, Rajkiya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalaya, Sector 10, Dwarka, Delhi is ranked India’s #1 government day school and two other RPVVs are ranked in the country’s Top 10 by a special sample group of 1,027 SEC (socio-economic category) ‘B’ ‘C’ & ‘D’ respondents. For RPVVs to have bested 1,244 Central government-promoted Kendriya Vidyalaya schools which traditionally top all government school league tables, is no small achievement.

Quite clearly, AAP’s decision to place universal QEFA at the top of its election manifesto is resonating with the public. Early this year, AAP won the Punjab legislative assembly election with a comfortable majority. The BJP’s panicky decision to file corruption charges against Sisodia, a minister of unimpeachable integrity and main proponent of QEFA, is an indicator that the BJP leadership is rattled.

Also Read: Students in Delhi government schools increase by 21 percent, says Sisodia