Skip to main content

Ahmedabad govt schools' class one enrolment goes down by "more than 50%", alleges activist-turned-politician

By Our Representative
Making a scathing attack on the BJP government in Gujarat, a well-known activist-turned-politician has said the recent state-sponsored child enrolment drive, kanya kelavni, is a “complete failure”, with more than 50 per cent drop in in the total number of children admitted in state government schools in Ahmedabad alone.
Talking with newspersons, Sukhdev Patel, formerly with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), said, “Ten years ago, about 31,000 children would be enrolled in the city’s municipal corporation schools; this has gone down to less than 15,000 today.”
Patel said, “The state government has been claiming per cent success in the child enrolment drive, but has, ever since it began with the kanya kelavni programme under Narendra Modi 14 years ago, refused to give the number of children getting admitted in class one.”
“The state government appears to have lost interest in government schools, whose quality has been progressively deteriorating”, Patel said, adding, “This has led to a situation where the poor parents are forced to admit their children to private schools. In fact, the Gujarat government is shedding its responsibility of supporting school education.”
Contending that the Gujarat government is refusing to implement the RTE Act in its letter and spirit, Patel said, under Section 9 of the Act, it is the responsibility of the local government authorities to collect all the statistical details of every child up to the age of 14.
“The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), under the BJP rule, has not cared to follow this section of the RTI Act”, Patel said, adding, “Even the Congress appears to be unaware of this provision.”
“What is worse”, he said, “Is that for quite some time there is no chairman of the Ahmedabad Municipal School Board, which should be response be responsible for collecting the information”, threatening to hold a child rights protest rally in the city.
Addressing newspersons ahead of AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal’s visit to Gujarat on July 9-10, Patel, who was earlier the party’s Gujarat convener, said, “This is not just true of Ahmedabad but of entire Gujarat. This suggests that the Right to Education (RTE) Act is just not being implemented in the state.”
Patel, who has been associated with the state’s premier child rights group, Gantar, is known to hvae initiated AAP in Gujarat during its formative stage three years ago. Early this year, he resigned from the party because of sharp differences over the selection of cadres for AAP, forming Sushasan Party.
On sidelines of the press conference, Patel told Counterview, he has “no quarrels with the AAP ideology”, but as of today, he claimed, the party “does not exist in the state.” He added, “Its present leaders lack agenda or perspective. Many of them are former BJP members.”
Kejriwal’s decision to arrive in Gujarat, starting with Somnath, from where he will go to Surat, and the announcement that AAP will be fighting all the 182 seats in the December 2017 assembly polls, has already created political flutter across India, with Congress and BJP making frantic attempts to deny its very existence in the state.
AAP’s critics say, the party does not even have a permanent state-level office in Gujarat. “There is a temporary office in Dani Limda area in the house of a discredited builder”, a senior political leader alleged.

Comments

TRENDING

Andhra team joins Gandhians to protest against 'bulldozer action' in Varanasi

By Rosamma Thomas*  November 1 marked the 52nd day of the 100-day relay fast at the satyagraha site of Rajghat in Varanasi, seeking the restoration of the 12 acres of land to the Sarva Seva Sangh, the Gandhian organization that was evicted from the banks of the river. Twelve buildings were demolished as the site was abruptly taken over by the government after “bulldozer” action in August 2023, even as the matter was pending in court.  

Right-arm fast bowler who helped West Indies shape arguably greatest Test team in cricket history

By Harsh Thakor*  Malcolm Marshall redefined what it meant to be a right-arm fast bowler, challenging the traditional laws of biomechanics with his unique skill. As we remember his 25th death anniversary on November 4th, we reflect on the legacy he left behind after his untimely death from colon cancer. For a significant part of his career, Marshall was considered one of the fastest and most formidable bowlers in the world, helping to shape the West Indies into arguably the greatest Test team in cricket history.

Outreach programme in medical education: Band-aids for compound fractures

By Amitav Banerjee, MD*  Recently, the National Medical Commission (NMC) of India, introduced two curricular changes in medical education, both at the undergraduate and the postgraduate levels, ostensibly to offer opportunities for quality medical education and to improve health care accessibility among the underserved rural and urban population.

Loktantra Bachao Abhiyan raises concerns over Jharkhand Adivasis' plight in Assam, BJP policies

By Our Representative  The Loktantra Bachao Abhiyan (Save Democracy Campaign) has issued a pressing call to protect Adivasi rights in Jharkhand, highlighting serious concerns over the treatment of Jharkhandi Adivasis in Assam. During a press conference in Ranchi on November 9, representatives from Assam, Chhattisgarh, and Madhya Pradesh criticized the current approach of BJP-led governments in these states, arguing it has exacerbated Adivasi struggles for rights, land, and cultural preservation.

Promoting love or instilling hate and fear: Why is RSS seeking a meeting with Rahul Gandhi?

By Ram Puniyani*  India's anti-colonial struggle was marked by a diverse range of social movements, one of the most significant being Hindu-Muslim unity and the emergence of a unified Indian identity among people of all religions. The nationalist, anti-colonial movement championed this unity, best embodied by Mahatma Gandhi, who ultimately gave his life for this cause. Gandhi once wrote, “The union that we want is not a patched-up thing but a union of hearts... Swaraj (self-rule) for India must be an impossible dream without an indissoluble union between the Hindus and Muslims of India. It must not be a mere truce... It must be a partnership between equals, each respecting the religion of the other.”

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Will Left victory in Sri Lanka deliver economic sovereignty plan, go beyond 'tired' IMF agenda?

By Atul Chandra, Vijay Prashad*  On September 22, 2024, the Sri Lankan election authority announced that Anura Kumara Dissanayake of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP)-led National People’s Power (NPP) alliance won the presidential election. Dissanayake, who has been the leader of the left-wing JVP since 2014, defeated 37 other candidates, including the incumbent president Ranil Wickremesinghe of the United National Party (UNP) and his closest challenger Sajith Premadasa of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya. 

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

By Rajiv Shah  The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual. 

Will Bangladesh go Egypt way, where military ruler is in power for a decade?

By Vijay Prashad*  The day after former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina left Dhaka, I was on the phone with a friend who had spent some time on the streets that day. He told me about the atmosphere in Dhaka, how people with little previous political experience had joined in the large protests alongside the students—who seemed to be leading the agitation. I asked him about the political infrastructure of the students and about their political orientation. He said that the protests seemed well-organized and that the students had escalated their demands from an end to certain quotas for government jobs to an end to the government of Sheikh Hasina. Even hours before she left the country, it did not seem that this would be the outcome.