BJP wants to keep country uneducated: Manish Sisodia slams UP govt over private schools' fee hike

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said attacking UP govt, "You will not work on improving the condition of the government schools and you will allow the private schools to hike the fees. You want to keep the country illiterate. This is the BJP's governance model. Please think about the parents."

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New Delhi: Slamming the Uttar Pradesh government for permitting private schools to hike their fees, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Sunday (April 10) said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wants to "keep the country uneducated".

"The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government was formed in Punjab on March 16 and within 10 days, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann issued an order saying private schools cannot increase their fees. On the other hand, the BJP government was formed in Uttar Pradesh on March 25 and it passed an order saying private schools have complete freedom to increase the fees and loot the parents," PTI quoted Delhi Education minister Sisodia as saying. 

In a virtual address, Sisodia asked the ruling BJP government in Uttar Pradesh to consider the condition of the parents, adding that many people have lost their livelihood during the Covid-19 pandemic and the fee hike will affect them. 

"They cannot work on improving government schools. Where will the common man go? People have lost employment during Covid. You will not work on improving the condition of the government schools and you will allow the private schools to hike the fees. You want to keep the country illiterate. This is the BJP's governance model. Please think about the parents," the AAP leader said.

Speaking about Delhi, he said they are working to control the fee hike by private schools and now if the schools want to increase the fees they need to seek the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP government's approval. 

"Earlier, private schools could arbitrarily increase their fees in Delhi, but we stopped it in 2015. In the last seven years, we have stopped the private schools from increasing the fees and then we introduced a system where if they need to hike the fees, they will have to seek permission from the Delhi government. Their accounts are analysed by the government to figure out whether they actually need to increase the fees," the Delhi Deputy CM added. 

In a recent order notified by Additional Chief Secretary (secondary education) Aradhna Shukla, the private schools in Uttar Pradesh have been allowed to increase their fees by 5 per cent from the academic session 2022-23.

(With agency inputs)