New Delhi, Aug 15 While speaking on what are needed for India to achieve Vishwaguru status, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that it would not be possible unless every student of the country gets a world-class education system.
He mentioned that most of the government schools in the country had turned into scrap godowns, without having any facilities.
While addressing the people at Chhatrasal Stadium on Independence Day, Kejriwal stated, "Look at developed countries like Japan, France, Italy, USA, and UK. They provide world-level education to their students, even in government schools. In our country, 25 crore kids go to school, out of which 17 crore are government school students. Except for Delhi, all government schools are like scrap godowns. There are no facilities; the condition of government schools is very poor. Under such circumstances, can my India be a Vishwaguru? No."
Kejriwal mentioned that the central government has initiated a project to repair 14,500 government schools in the country, which will cost around Rs 5,000 crore. However, there are 10 lakh government schools in the whole country. Kejriwal pointed out that at this pace, it would take India around 100 to 150 years to repair all the schools.
"I am presenting a plan before you. In the next five years, we can develop the 10 lakh government schools in our country better than private schools. We can make them world-class, just as we have done in Delhi, where our government schools are giving tough competition to private schools. The results of Delhi Government schools are better than private schools. Now we are improving Punjab's schools," Kejriwal said.
He calculated that the country needs Rs 6 lakh crore to repair all the government schools, which means only Rs 1.20 lakh crore will need to be spent each year. Rs 1.20 lakh crore is nothing for a country like India.
"To provide uniforms and staff salaries at schools, we only need Rs 7.5 lakh crore per year, which the state and central governments are already spending. This means we don't need new funds," Kejriwal said.
Kejriwal added that his dream was not just to alleviate the poverty of the poor but to make them prosperous, which is only possible by providing world-class education to their children. He said that when the child of a poor person becomes an engineer or a doctor, their poverty will be eliminated.
"India will not become Vishwaburu only by delivering speeches," Kejriwal added.
--IANS
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