British destroyed Indian education system, we are on now to fix it: Arvind Kejriwal

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday accused the British of destroying the Indian education system and turning it into an assembly-line of clerk making, as he called on students to train to become job givers, not seekers.

Kejriwal made the remarks while addressing the inauguration ceremony of the east Delhi campus of Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (GGSIPU), during which he was interrupted by slogans by BJP workers.

Kejriwal dedicated the new campus to the country and termed it one of the best the country has.

“It has excellent facilities and in terms of architecture, it can be counted as one of the best campuses in the country. This campus will accommodate 2,500 students. Students from across the country will come and live around here, causing a rise in the number of hostels and paying guest joints.

“The number of shops and restaurants will also increase in the area as a consequence of the university,” he said.

Kejriwal said that every year 2.5 lakh boys and girls complete their schooling in the city and become ready for college. Roughly 1.5 lakh of these students complete their schooling from government schools and the rest from private schools, he added.

“When we formed the government for the first time in 2015, we found that in Delhi there were college seats for only around 1.1 lakh of these children. So, there was a deficit of around 1.4 lakh seats.

“In the last 7-8 years, we have been able to increase the number of college seats from 1.1 lakh to 1.5 lakh. We still have a deficit of 1 lakh college seats, and we are working to address this problem,” he said, stressing that the AAP gave a model for school education and now its focus is on higher education.

The CM in his speech also slammed British bureaucrat Lord Macaulay for creating an education system that still exists, merely to churn out educated clerks.

“Prior to that there was another system of education that I have heard about which was very successful. There were acharyas in every village and the children of the peasants studied together with the children of the king,” he said.

He added that the British in the 1830s supplanted the Indian education system with their own, not to enlighten the natives, but to raise educated clerks to help the foreign bureaucracy ruling the country.

“Unfortunately, this system still continues in the country. We complete our BA and then do an MA and some even do a PhD, but we still struggle to get a job after all this struggle. What is the point in doing all this if there are no jobs for our students?” he asked.

“On this campus, students will be taught automation, design, artificial intelligence, machine learning, data management, and innovation. This is the demand of the technological world,” he said.

Kejriwal said that the vice-chancellor of every university should be responsible for getting students jobs, as he stressed on students to become employers and not go after jobs which are in scarcity in the country.

The CM said the Delhi government is thinking of conducting a survey to know what people who studied in the city schools end up doing, among other things.

“We need to conduct a survey to find out where the students who completed Class 12 from a government school in Delhi in the last 5-6 years are now engaged. We want to know what percentage of students studied further and what percentage dropped out. We want to know whether they pursued their college within Delhi or outside. We are interested in knowing what professions these students are now involved in,” he said. “If we have this data then we can know in which areas we need to work further and what facilities can be given to these students in school so that they do better in their lives,” said Kejriwal. His speech, almost in its entirety, was hamstrung by detracting shouts from the audience by the BJP workers.

Earlier, Education Minister Atishi’s speech too was interrupted by pro-Modi and anti-AAP sloganeering. As the commotion increased, varsity Vice-Chancellor Mahesh Verma warned the disrupters to calm down else he would be forced to end the event.

During her speech, Atishi said that when she posted pictures of her campus visit two months back, someone asked her, “Is this the campus of Stanford University or New York university?” to her surprise.

“I said no, this is the campus of the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University constructed by the Delhi government. Some people say the country will progress by building flyovers and bridges. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal says that the construction of more schools and colleges will lead the country to progress,” she said.

Delhi Assembly speaker Ram Niwas Goel walked off the stage as leaders made their speeches.

When he was called, he said his name was not mentioned in the papers. “I say this with sadness, that though my position is a constitutional one, my name was not there in the papers,” Goel said, getting support from the crowd which chanted Shame, Shame.

Goel asked people for silence and ploughed through his speech during which he remembered former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, who is currently in Tihar jail.

“Manish Sisodia made several visits to inspect the ongoing construction work of the university and personally invited me to visit the IP University construction site three times. I consider myself fortunate to have had the opportunity to visit it on those occasions, and as a result, I hold him in high regard,” he said.

The GGSIPUs east Delhi campus has become the latest flashpoint between the AAP-led city government and Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena, with both sides claiming the right to inaugurate the newly built campus and take credit for its construction.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Federal staff and is auto-published from a syndicated feed.)