Last week, Delhi’s Finance Minister Manish Sisodia presented the budget where he claimed a hike on allocations for the education sector. The Delhi government, for the past six years, has made many a claim of spending on education but unfortunately, it has failed to show on the ground so far. It’s a matter of record that in the past six years, the Delhi government has failed to open any new school or college in the national Capital. What it has done is the retrofitting of the government schools, which in a natural course is undertaken by any government unless its an anarchic establishment like the one run by Lalu Prasad-Rabri Devi for many years in the state of Bihar.
On a more serious count, the Arvind Kejriwal government has also failed to procure private capital investment in the field of higher education. The Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (GGSIPU) which over the past two decades has emerged as a major hub of professional education the national capital, has seen no growth during the term of the present government. Worse is the case of Delhi University which has 12 colleges funded by the Delhi government.
While the university has many problems thanks to the lack of vision on the part of the Union education ministry, matters have been worsened by the fork-tongued Education and Finance Minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia. The teachers and the employees of Delhi University had to go on a shutdown last week to force the AAP government to release salary grant for the last quarter of the financial year, which has seen several delays in the release of salary throughout the pandemic. While Sisodia ordered the release of funds, he also claimed that he was ordering a probe into the misuse of funds, probably indicating that in future too he would delay such grants.
Nothing could be more ironic for the teachers and students of a much-respected university, which has to go on frequent strikes and shutdowns to get their minimum dues from a government which talks of putting the focus on education. For the past year, Sisodia has ordered several rounds of probe into the finances of these colleges and has so far failed to unearth anything substantial. The misery of the teachers was evident in a recent note on social media by a college teacher. It mentioned that it was strange that whenever there was an action programme or a High Court directive, the Delhi government released salary. The message bemoaned the fact that teachers have to fight each time to get their due salary and notes in the same vein that till October 2019 there was no problem with the release of grants.
These teachers are caught in a cleft stick with their future not too assured. On one hand, the Atmanirbhar central government has no plans to take over these colleges, on the other Delhi government wants to fund only such institutions which are under the aegis of the state universities. It has recently taken over the historic College of Art and put it under the Ambedkar University of Delhi and nobody has complained about it.
It’s the moral duty of the Visitor of Delhi University that is the President through the Union Education Ministry to ensure that the colleges under it remain functional. It cannot shirk its responsibility. The new vision of education, announced last year by Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, in search of Atmanirbharta (self-reliance) should not leave the colleges orphaned fending for survival with no support from anywhere whatsoever.
Sidharth Mishra
Author and president, Centre for Reforms, Development & Justice