Haryana government is closing schools instead of opening them: Kumari Selja

The General Secretary of the All India Congress Committee and former Central Minister, Kumari Selja said that the BJP-JJP alliance government is failing to manage existing schools instead of opening new government schools. Within four years, after closing nearly 500 schools, there’s now a conspiracy to shut down 1076 government schools, many with 20 or fewer students, under the guise of merging. Additionally, there’s talk of hiring teachers on contract through the Haryana Kaushal Employment Corporation to accommodate children in government schools, raising concerns about the quality of education.

In a statement released to the media, Kumari Selja said that the state’s population is continuously increasing, yet efforts to provide children with more educational opportunities nearer to their homes have not been made. Instead of opening new schools as per the population, the alliance government is busy shutting down existing government schools. She said that children themselves are now removing their names from government schools, hence the pre-matric scholarships for eighth-grade students have been discontinued. The Congress-led central government had granted the right to free education up to the eighth grade in 2009, a provision now being conspired to end under this plot. Therefore, textbooks are not provided on time in government schools, and funds for uniforms are not allocated.

Kumari Selja said that within a few days last year, thousands of positions for PGTs and TGTs were contracted. There’s no information about how these recruitments were conducted, what rules were followed, or the basis for selection. Instead of rectifying their mistakes, the government is planning to recruit teachers again through the Haryana Skill Employment Corporation. Despite two recruitment commissions already functioning in the state, numerous Higher Secondary, highly educated youths are waiting for government teaching positions. Even the previously conducted recruitments on contracts faced controversies; those who had experience teaching in primary schools were assigned to TGT/PGT positions.