NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) held both BJP and Congress squarely responsible for India’s ruined education system. Senior AAP leader and former Delhi Education Minister Manish Sisodia said, “While countries across the world are preparing their children to become AI experts, we are failing to even provide education that would make our children employable in the AI economy.”

He said the state of education in India has deteriorated into a wreck due to the policies and neglect of successive governments led by BJP and Congress. “Wherever AAP is in power, we have transformed government schools. Where we’re not in power, we’re fighting to make education a priority,” he added.

On Tuesday, AAP Prabharis (In-charges) from 20 states have resolved to send a team of 3,000 volunteers across the country to inspect government schools and publicly expose the state of education in India.

Vast gap between the Centre’s claims and ground reality of India’s education system: Manish Sisodia

Addressing a press conference, alongside Punjab Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains and MP Sanjay Singh, senior AAP leader and Punjab Prabhari Manish Sisodia criticised the Centre’s education policies. Referring to the conference of state education ministers called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier in the day, Manish Sisodia stated, “The PM claimed that through the New Education Policy (NEP), we have taken India to new heights. But the reality on the ground is quite different. Countries across the world are preparing their children for the future, while in India, we are sending our children to schools where they are dying due to collapsed infrastructure. The entire country saw what happened in Jhalawar, Rajasthan, where a government school’s roof collapsed and 8 children lost their lives. Parents had sent their children to school with the hope that they would study and secure the family’s future, but they returned home carrying their children’s bodies.”

Children lost their lives in Jhalawar because fixing government schools is not BJP’s priority: Manish Sisodia

Holding government apathy responsible for the deaths, Manish Sisodia said, “These children died because there’s a government that believes it doesn’t have money to repair government schools. I am confident that in the education ministers’ conference, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan must have not spoken about Jhalawar, even after NEP. If this had been a one-off incident, we could have called it an accident. But after the Jhalawar tragedy, the media in Rajasthan published lists of government schools highlighting where similar incidents could happen.

“The Education Minister of Rajasthan responded saying the government has no money. After Jhalawar, images emerged from Hapur in Uttar Pradesh and a government school in Madhya Pradesh. Today, citizens across India are posting photos of their dilapidated local schools on social media,” he added.

India’s education has turned into a crumbling ruin: Manish Sisodia

Highlighting the AAP’s internal deliberations on education, he said, “Today, AAP leaders held serious discussions on the state of education, and everyone agreed that the Indian education system has become a crumbling ruin. A crumbling system is preparing India for a crumbling future. AAP holds both BJP and Congress responsible for this mess. According to India’s own Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) data, only 4.80% of government schools in the country have computer labs. Merely 29% of children can read a second-grade textbook or do basic maths. If a class five child cannot read a second-grade text or solve basic maths problems, what kind of country are we preparing? And for what achievement are we celebrating five years of the NEP?”

Congress and BJP have looted and deceived the country in the name of education for 75 years: Manish Sisodia

Taking aim at successive governments, the former Delhi Education Minister stressed, “The NEP says that 6% of India’s GDP should be spent on education. But forget 6%, the Central Government hasn’t even spent 2.5% of its annual budget on education in any of these five years. Despite celebrating five years of NEP, they couldn’t cross the 2.5% mark. Before this, the Congress had brought the Right to Education. But neither party properly implemented their policies. For the last 75 years, both BJP and Congress have looted the country in the name of education and deceived the people.”

Manish Sisodia added, “In 2009, India........

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