BJP wants govt schools shut to clear field for private players,' says Rajasthan Cong chief Dotasra

Jaipur, Jan 4 (PTI)strengthen the ground for the children Rajasthan Congress President Govind Singh Dotasra on Saturday accused the state's education minister of conspiring to close the English-medium Mahatma Gandhi schools, which were opened by the previous Congress government, in order to benefit private educational institutions.

He further said that Congress will hold protests across the state if the government decides to close these schools.

In response, BJP state president Madan Rathore said the previous Congress government opened English-medium schools in a hurry just to gain applause but failed to arrange infrastructure or appoint English teachers.

The BJP-led state government has formed a four-member ministerial committee, headed by Deputy Chief Minister Premchand Bairwa, to review the English-medium government schools in Rajasthan.

Opposing this, Dotasra said the Congress party will surround the BJP ministers and raise public issues in the upcoming budget session of the Rajasthan Assembly.

"If the BJP government closes the Mahatma Gandhi English-medium schools, which provide free English education to the children of the poor, under the guise of a review, the Congress will oppose this decision across the state. The fight will be taken from the House to the streets," he told reporters at the PCC.

He alleged that the state education minister was conspiring to shut down these schools to benefit private educational institutions.

Dotasra also raised questions about the cabinet committee’s review of the 3,737 Mahatma Gandhi English-medium schools, asking why the committee was formed 12 months after the government was formed.

"Why did the government remain inactive for a year?" he asked.

"The Congress government introduced several innovations in the field of education, but the BJP government cannot point to a single achievement in education," he added.

In response, Rathore said the Congress had conspired to ruin the lives of children by making irrelevant arrangements in the education sector, but the BJP government would conduct a review.

"Congress closed Hindi-medium schools in far-flung villages and converted them to English-medium, which was an impractical decision. Congress did not even care about the future of Hindi-medium students," Rathore said in a statement.

"If Congress was concerned about children, it would have worked to strengthen the foundation of education in schools and improved English proficiency. The Congress government did not prepare the groundwork for the children and directly converted Hindi-medium schools to English-medium," he added.

"Congress took such a decision in a hurry, which was completely irrelevant. In view of this, Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma has formed a review committee," he said.

Rathore said that the committee would decide how to strengthen the foundation for children and improve arrangements, including infrastructure in schools. PTI SDA ARD ARD

Source: PTI