12 ,000 schools to get infra upgrade in 54 days under new ‘Sikhya Kranti’ initiative

In an unprecedented move, the AAP government will inaugurate upgraded infrastructure in 12,000 state government schools in 54 days, between April 7 and May 31.

The exercise to “showcase” the upgraded school infrastructure, under the government’s new campaign “Punjab Sikhya Kranti”, will see top political functionaries inaugurating repaired boundary walls, new classrooms, new or repaired toilets, additional chairs and tables. Each school will install the inaugural plaque at a cost of Rs 5,000.

Under the new instructions issued today, all top political functionaries, including the Chief Minister, Education Minister, MPs, MLAs and other elected representatives, will only be “competent” to inaugurate the new or upgraded infrastructure under the campaign.

Meanwhile, questioning the inauguration programme, Democratic Teachers Front (DTF) state president Vikram Dev Singh said, “Instead of ending the VVIP culture, the government is promoting it in the schools. They have made the principals and teachers event managers instead of them focusing of education”.

Education Minister Harjot Bains said elected representatives had been doing inaugurations in previous governments. “We are inaugurating the facilities in 12,000 schools. There is nothing wrong in it. The government wants the elected representatives to have first-hand account of the schools and the improvements being done there. The interactions will add to the improvement of the schools.”

The Minister further said that this was a statutory provision of the School Management Committee under the Right of children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009. “It is the statutory responsibility of the public representatives to ensure that schools function effectively and public representatives are expected to monitor the schools frequently and remove shortcomings, if any. To ensure that the government fulfils its mandate and assures the parents that their children are being taken care of, the local MLA, sarpanch, ward councillor and other public representative should frequently visit schools. Such visits do not cause any disturbances in teachers’ learning process. In fact, these enhance the accountability of schools towards parents,” he added.

Incidentally, Sisodia, who has been appointed AAP’s Punjab incharge, along with the state Education Minister Harjot Bains, had recently visited certain schools in Mohali, Fatehgarh Sahib, Gurdaspur and Tarn Taran to get a first-hand account of schools’ infrastructure.

Only recently, the Punjab cabinet had decided to expand the management committees of the state-run schools by increasing the members from 12 to 16 in the panels. The four new members would include a representative of the area MLA and the respective urban local body member.

In the last instructions issued today, the school heads were told to strictly follow a given standard operating procedure (SOP) like pre-event preparations event day preparations and minute-to-minute programme. The schools are being given funds — Rs 20,000 (senior secondary school), Rs 10,000 (secondary school), Rs 5,000 (elementary school) and Rs 5,000 for the inaugural plaque. In the data collected by the Education Department, 6,812 schools have new or repaired boundary walls, 5,399 new classrooms have been added, 2,976 have been built in 2,934 schools, 7,166 toilets have been repaired in 4,889 schools, besides 1,16,901 desks and chairs have been added.

On the inaugural plaque having the name of the political functionary, the DTF state president said it was the politicisation of education.

‘Only competent authority for inauguration’

Under new instructions, all top political functionaries, including the Chief Minister, Education Minister, MPs, MLAs and other elected representatives, will only be “competent” to inaugurate the new or upgraded infrastructure under the campaign.

Orders on plaques seldom followed

After a controversy over former Forest Minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot’s strong objection to a school principal over his name not being on top of a building inauguration plaque in Nabha, former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh in 2017 prohibited the inclusion of names of any government functionary, including ministers and MLAs, on the foundation stones and inaugural plaques. It was then clarified that there was no bar on government functionaries and leaders inaugurating or laying the foundation stone of any building or project, the practice of having their names inscribed on such stones or plaques was being discarded. But the orders were seldom followed.