Delhi Lt Governor seeks report on drop in school enrolment
NEW DELHI: The Lieutenant Governor (LG) secretariat has written to Delhi chief secretary asking him to “examine the reasons” behind the decline in enrolment in Delhi government schools from 15.42 lakh in 2014-15 to 15.1 lakh in 2019-20, said officials in the LG House on Monday.
According to officials, LG Vinai Kumar Saxena has observed that the data published in the Economic Survey 2021–2022, of the Delhi government, details the decline in enrolment and absenteeism of students despite the expenditure on the education sector by the government increasing from Rs 6,145.03 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 11,081.09 crore in 2019-20.
The number of students enrolled in Delhi government schools declined from 15.42 lakh in 2014-15 to 15.19 lakh in 2019-20. Similarly, the percentage of students attending classes has ranged between 55% to 61% between 2017 and 2022, indicating high absenteeism in the range of about 6 lakh children not attending schools regularly, said officials.
The Economic Survey report 2021-22 was released this March just ahead of the Delhi budget, which had mentioned a drop in student enrolment in government schools on account of the covid -19 pandemic.
“Despite a substantial increase in the investment in education by the state government both in absolute terms and as part of the total budget, it is seen that during the same period, the enrolment in schools declined,” read the letter sent by the LG office to chief secretary Naresh Kumar.
Officials said that the LG Secretariat has written to the CS with the above-mentioned facts along with copies of the Economic Survey asking him to examine the reasons for the above “anomaly” in the larger public interest and put up a note to this effect for LG’s perusal on priority.
Earlier on Monday, the BJP alleged that the AAP’s education model is an “extortion” model and claimed the government increased the budget for the construction of classrooms in its existing schools, ignoring the Central Public Works Department’s guidelines.
Citing a CVC report sent to the Delhi government’s vigilance department in 2020, the saffron party said the city government hiked the construction cost by Rs 326 crore, 53 per cent more than the original tender amount, without floating a new tender.