Kapil Mishra counters Sisodia's claims, says Delhi is witnessing 'advertising revolution'

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kapil Mishra countered claims made by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and said Delhi government is mainly focusing on 'much advertised' educational system and not looking into the problems why the number of students in public schools is decreasing.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kapil Mishra countered claims made by Deputy Chief Minister Msh Sisodia and said Delhi government is mainly focusing on 'much advertised' educational system and not looking into the problems why the number of students in public schools is decreasing.

The attack came days after Deputy Sisodia asked Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to resign if he is unable to improve the education system in UP.

Mishra in a tweet attached a list of 10 questions and wrote, "10 straight questions to Msh Sisodia on Delhi's failed education system. Earlier Msh Sisodia ji lied to the people of UP. My challenge is to answer these ten questions to the public. The education revolution in Delhi is actually an "advertising revolution."

In the list of attached questions, the BJP leader stated that in past few years, there has been an increase in students leaving public schools and joining private schools.

"The statistics of the Economic Survey report released by the Government of Delhi also provide evidence of this. According to this survey, where the share of Delhi's private schools was only 31 per cent in the year 2014-15, it increased to more than 45.5 per cent in the year 2017-18," Mishra stated.

"In 2014, 1 lakh 66 thousand students sat for the 12th examination; in 2015, 1 lakh 40 thousand; in 2016, 1 lakh 3 thousand; in 2017, 1 lakh 21 thousand; in 2018 only 1 lakh 11 thousand children sat in the 12th examination. Why and how did this terrible shortage happen?" he asked?

The BJP leader asked why as many as 1 lakh 40 thousand students left government schools and joined private schools, and why compared to 2014, as many as 42,000 less number of students from public schools passed the 12th board?

"In greed of advertising a good result during boards, about 50 per cent of the students are being failed in class 9th. In Delhi, 47.7 per cent of students failed class 9th during 2016-17. And why 20 per cent of the students who passed the tenth failed in the 11th?" he asked further.

Mishra stated that compared to class 9th, only half of the students reach class 10th, while only one-third of them reached class 12th.

He further alleged that despite announcing a big portion of the budget for education, the Delhi government for the past five years constantly is not spending around Rs 2,000 crore of it.

"Delhi government has constructed no new schools in the last five years. About 15000 temporary rooms have been set up in Delhi's pre-built schools. There were around 3000 schools already built in Delhi. On average, five new rooms were built in a school.Making five new temporary rooms in a school :Will this be called educational revolution?" he opined.

Mishra asked Sisodia about the number of teachers recruited in government schools in the last seven years and said that 70 per cent of positions for principals in government schools are vacant.

"Why 92 per cent of the schools are short of teachers? Why 76 per cent of the schools do not even have a drinking water connection? In the last five years, Delhi's government schools witnessed a 62 per cent reduction in the area of playing field, 53 per cent reduction in the Science labs, a decrease of about 74 per cent in libraries. Instead of increasing the facilities for students, the facilities are gradually decreasing," he stated further.

Mishra claimed national capital government, apart from advertisement and media management did nothing for Delhi alleged there is a connection between the owner of the agency that puts up the Delhi government's advertising and hoardings and Sisodia's brother-in-law.

On December 19, Sisodia had slammed Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath saying that if he cannot provide good education to children of Uttar Pradesh, which has a large population, then he should resign.

( With inputs from ANI )