New Delhi: A major controversy erupted on Sunday (April 24) when Kerala Education Minister V Sivankutty publicly countered claim of AAP MLA Atishi.
On Saturday (April 23) afternoon, Atishi shared a few pictures of some ‘officials’ visiting from Kerala to study the education model of Delhi. Along with the pictures she wrote on Twitter “It was wonderful to host officials from Kerala at one of our schools in Kalkaji. They were keen to understand and implement our education model in their state. This is Arvind Kejriwal Govt’s idea of nation-building. Development through collaboration.”
Atishi is AAP MLA from Kalkaji constituency in Delhi.
On Sunday (April 24), Kerala Education Minister V Sivankutty said that Kerala government has not sent any delegation to Delhi to study the education model of Delhi. He claimed some officials from Delhi had visited Kerala last month to study ‘Kerala model’ and all assistance was provided to them.
Quoting Atishi’s tweet, Minister Sivankutty wrote “Kerala’s Dept of Education has not sent anyone to learn about the ‘Delhi Model’. At the same time, all assistance was provided to officials who had visited from Delhi to study the ‘Kerala Model’ last month. We would like to know which ‘officials’ were welcomed by the AAP MLA.”
After coming to power in Delhi in 2015, Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP government had appointed Atishi an advisor to Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia who is also the education minister of Delhi.
BJP MP (Lok Sabha) from Delhi Parvesh Sahib Singh criticised Arvind Kejriwal’s government for spreading fake news. He said, “This is a shameless government. They got hold of someone, clicked pictures and claimed they had come to learn from the ‘Delhi model’.”
Another BJP MP (Lok Sabha) from Delhi Manoj Tiwari criticised Arvind Kejriwal government for spreading lies and creating a fake ‘Delhi model’.
Although the Kerala education model is itself shattered. In October last year, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had expressed concern over the poor health of educational institutes in the state.
“We need to think about why so many students from Kerala are joining Delhi and other universities and colleges. The courses they want are unavailable here. We have to find a solution. New courses should be started in higher education sector. Each institution should have the necessary environment to increase academic standards. Libraries should be well-equipped so that students can use them any time,” he had said.
Just before the schools were to reopen in Kerala in October last year after long Covid-19 forced closure, over 3000 schools, including government and aided schools, in the state had failed to get fitness certificates.
