Delhi BJP president accuses AAP of severely damaging Delhi’s education system

The President of Delhi BJP has accused the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government of severely damaging the capital's school system as there is reportedly an acute shortage of teachers in Delhi schools.

Virendra Sachdeva blamed Delhi Education Minister Atishi, saying: "They haven't hired any permanent or guest teachers in a while, and many of them have been reassigned to other non-teaching duties."

In the Delhi government schools, there is a shortage of about 6,000 teachers, making the teacher-student ratio quite low. "As a result, Delhi government schools have one of the lowest teacher-student ratios," he said.

Sachdeva accused AAP of not hiring any new regular teachers in the last ten years. He claimed that only about 43,000 permanent teachers and 13,000 guest teachers were present in Delhi schools when there was a need for 62,000 teachers.

The BJP never intended to get involved in politics around education, but Atishi's constant criticism of the party "forced it" to become public, he said.

He claimed that the Kejriwal government assigned over 5,000 teachers to non-teaching roles. There are also open positions for about 5,200 clerks and account staff in Delhi government schools.

"For the past 10 years, the government has not hired new regular or guest teachers, and many teachers are being forced to perform administrative and legal duties, which further impacts classroom teaching," said Sachdeva.

"AAP said Delhi's education system was the best in India, as demonstrated by then-US First Lady Melania Trump's visit. The NITI Aayog has also declared that Delhi's government schools have the best infrastructure and education," he added.

Sachdeva accused the Arvind Kejriwal government that, "through initiatives like the 'Business Blaster Scheme', the government was misusing educational funds to hire party cadres and influence first-time voters."

He raised concern about "non-academic activities" and said that strict regulations on student promotion were causing teacher dissatisfaction and a decline in educational standards.