In yet another step towards further strengthening the ‘Education Revolution’ in the National Capital, Chief Minister Shri Arvind Kejriwal inaugurated the Sarvodaya Co-ed Vidyalaya in Libaspur Village in Delhi on Monday. The school building consists of 3 blocks and has a total of 50 classrooms. In addition, there are 8 labs, 2 libraries and a lift. There are also office & staff rooms, activity rooms, toilet blocks on every floor of the building. Other additional facilities include a fully air-conditioned multi-purpose hall with a seating capacity of 200 persons. The new school will begin from the current academic session and classes will be held in a single shift for boys and girls from Nursery to Class 12. A total of 2000 students from the nearby areas will study in this magnificent campus. This new school will greatly benefit the children residing in the nearby areas of Libaspur, Jeevan Park, Rana Park, Bhagat Singh Park, Sanjay Colony and Swarup Nagar. Earlier, children living in these areas had to travel a distance of 3-4 kilometres to attend government schools in Samaypur and Siraspur.
As per Chief Minister Shri Arvind Kejriwal with the inauguration of the government school in Libaspur, the region will now be proud to possess an educational institution surpassing the standards of any private school. The Chief Minister further highlighted the Delhi government’s efforts in narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor through transformative changes in the education system. He also said that the Delhi Government works with the right intent and dedication to serve the people of Delhi, which is why it manages to overcome all obstructions. Today, a staggering 80% of Delhi Government schools surpass private institutions in terms of quality and infrastructure, marking a significant milestone in achieving equitable education for all, the CM added.
On this occasion, Chief Minister Shri Arvind Kejriwal enthusiastically declared that in the next 5-7 years, MCD schools will also undergo a remarkable transformation. In a significant step towards enhancing the skills and capabilities of teachers, MCD teachers will be sent to the prestigious IIM Ahmedabad for training. This initiative aims to bring about transformative changes in MCD schools as well.
Addressing the students and their parents at the inauguration ceremony of the school, Shri Arvind Kejriwal said that there was a point when no one could have imagined that a government school could have been so beautiful. “Until a few years ago, none of us had thought that a government school could be so magnificent. Forget government schools, none of us has thought that even a private school in Delhi would be so good. The school that has been built in your area is better than any other government or private school in all of Delhi, and perhaps even the country,” he said.
The Delhi CM urged the parents gathered at the event to visit the classroom, libraries and laboratories in the school and see the transformation in education brought about by the Delhi Government for themselves. “Earlier the condition of government schools was very poor. Most of them used to function in tents and did not even have a proper roof. There were no fans, desks or even toilets. The children barely came here for an hour and then would run away. There was no proper education provided to them in these schools,” he said.
Shri Arvind Kejriwal added that one of the biggest achievement of the state government has been that it has been able to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor. “The children of poor families studied in these poor quality government schools while the rich sent their children to private schools. Now in Delhi we have managed to bridge this massive gap between the quality of education provided to poor children and those provided to the rich children. But now the quality of government schools are as good as the private ones, if not better. The results of the government schools have also been magnificent over the last couple of years. Now it is upto the parents of the school as to which school they want to send their children to. The quality of education in both the schools is really good. I would even say that the quality of all government schools in Delhi is better than at least 80 percent of the private schools in the city. Therefore the parents need not send their children to private schools, anymore, as their wards will get excellent facilities in the government school as well,” he said.
The Delhi CM said that the credit for bringing about this transformation goes to the teachers of the government schools in Delhi. “It is the teachers and principals who deserve the true credit for this magnificent change and I would like to salute them. It was not possible for just the chief minister and minister and the 62 MLAs of the ruling party in Delhi to bring about such an incredible change. It is the 60,000 government school teachers of Delhi who have brought about this transformation in education,” he said.
Shri Arvind Kejriwal said that the state government only facilitated this change by bringing about a positive approach to things. “Until a few years ago, these same teachers were said to be lazy and incompetent, and the poor level of education in the government schools was blamed upon them. After forming the government in Delhi in 2015, we did not change even a single teacher. It is the same old teachers who have brought wonders to Delhi. All we did was that we brought a positive change in the system. When the CM, the ministers and the MLAs in the state government are honest and hardworking, it brings about a positive change that reflects upon the people of the state. This was all that the AAP-led Delhi Government changed after coming to power in 2015,” he said.
He said that the state government has received a request from the people of the area to name the school after Shri Chaudhary Ram Sharan Yadav, and it is considering the request. “Today the citizens of Libaspur have got perhaps the best school in not just Delhi but in the country. I can challenge anyone here to show me a better school than this across the country. I have been informed that around 2000 children will study in this new school over here. I am aware that there is an aided-school nearby run by Chaudhary Ram Sharan Yadav. He has done a lot of positive work for the society in this area, and the villagers of Libaspur have put in a request that this new school be named after him. I want to assure the citizens that the state government will look into this matter and take a decision soon,” he said.
Shri Arvind Kejriwal said that the citizens of Delhi have now also given the AAP-led government the opportunity to fix the schools run by the MCD in Delhi. “The MCD schools currently are in bad shape, but do not worry, we will fix them as well. It may take some time as there are 1800 schools. It took us 5-7 years to fix the government schools in Delhi. We will need around that much time to fix the MCD schools as well. But be rest assured that in a couple of years even the MCD schools in Delhi will be magnificent,” he said.
The Delhi CM said that the focus of the state government now is to provide good jobs to the students who graduate from these schools. “There is only one worry that bothers me at the moment. Our children manage to go to good quality schools and get good degrees, but yet they have trouble finding jobs. What is the point of all the education if at the end the children struggle to get a meaningful job? Therefore the Delhi Government is working very hard to try and provide all the assistance possible to ensure that our children get good jobs. We have started some new initiative in schools and colleges through which the child can focus on their career prospects,” he said.
He added that the state government had already provided lakhs of jobs to the state’s youngsters and it will be able to do more for the children of Delhi. “I am still new in politics but in the 7-8 years that I have been a politician there is only one thing that I have learnt and that is “Nothing is impossible”. If we all come together and think about the problem then we will be able to solve this problem as well. We will be able to create jobs for our children. We have already provided lots of jobs to our children, but now we have made this our “one-point programme”. Until our children are able to get jobs at the end of their education, it is meaningless to have other programmes of the Delhi Government,” he said.
The Delhi CM concluded, “Our main emphasis is to give our children the skill-set to become a “job provider” rather than a “job seeker”. It will be ideal if our children can start their small initiatives through which they can provide jobs to 3-4 people rather than become a job seeker. We are working with sincerity to make this a reality.”
On this occasion, Education Minister Ms Atishi congratulated citizens and said, “I can confidently say that this school in Libaspur is better than the finest private schools across Delhi and the country.” She said that the standard of government schools being built in Delhi today was simply unimaginable 8 years ago. Nobody could have foreseen that Delhi would have such world-class government schools. If we end up recalling the state of government schools in Delhi 8 years ago, it would bring tears to all our eyes. The first thing one would notice upon entering the school premises was the smell from the toilets, the broken windows and fans, absence of benches for children to sit on, and acute shortage of drinking water.”
She further added that during that time, parents would send their children to government schools with heavy hearts because they couldn’t afford to enrol them in expensive private schools. “Even a poor family would be forced to make sacrifices, such as cutting down on basic necessities, in an attempt to somehow educate their children in private schools. Economically weaker parents felt compelled to send their children to private schools at the cost of their own well-being because they knew that if their child attended a government school, there would be no future for them.”
The Education Minister said that a miracle happened in Delhi in 2014: The people of Delhi elected Shri Arvind Kejriwal as Chief Minister with an overwhelming majority. “At that time, the CM had a dream that every child would be guaranteed the right to the best education available in the country. Today, we are all very happy to see this dream turn into reality. The Kejriwal Government is the first and the only government in the country that allocates 25% of its budget to education. Neither before 2014 nor after that, has any government spent 25% of its budget on children’s education. In the past 9 years, world-class schools have been established, modern desks and smartboards have been installed inside classrooms, and for the first time in the history of the country, government school teachers and principals have been sent abroad for training so that they can provide world-class education to our children.”
Ms Atishi also said that today, as the inauguration of this school is taking place, it is hard to believe that this is a government school especially when you observe its beautiful rooms and magnificent laboratories. “After seeing the library of this school, I can guarantee that we will not be able to find such a beautiful library in any school in India. Such libraries are found in schools in London.” She also mentioned that this school in Libaspur is not the only such school, because now, a magnificent school building is being built in every corner of Delhi.
The Education Minister said that in the past five years, the results of board exams in our schools have been far better than those of private schools. “Today, students from Delhi government schools are clearing prestigious exams like IIT-JEE and NEET and securing admissions in top engineering and medical colleges across India. This year, more than 1,000 students have cleared the NEET exam, and over 700 students have qualified for the JEE. Every child living in Delhi today has an opportunity to dream, no matter where they come from. They can aspire to receive excellent education and secure the most prestigious jobs in the country. Instead of being forced to become a mechanic in a small shop, they can become a successful executive or engineer or even the CEO of the leading automobile companies across the world.”
She expressed her gratitude towards CM Shri Arvind Kejriwal and former Dy CM Shri Manish Sisodia for envisioning the transformation of India’s education system and tirelessly working day and night for the past 8 years to turn it into a reality. “Shri Manish Sisodia, the driving force behind the education revolution in Delhi, has exerted great efforts to make this mission successful. Because of him, schools under the Delhi government have now become the finest in the country.”
