Delhi: AAP silver lining

Most citizens tend to have a love-hate relationship with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). In February against all expectations, AAP not only bested but thrashed the BJP in the Delhi state assembly elections held ten months after the BJP-NDA coalition routed the Congress-led UPA coalition at the Centre, with the national electorate awarding the BJP the first absolute majority in the Lok Sabha since 1985. Earlier in 2013, AAP had emerged out of nowhere as the single largest party in the Delhi state assembly election and formed a government with support from Congress, a relationship which collapsed within 49 days. But even in its second term, the AAP government has failed to knuckle down to the business of governance. Instead, it is engaged in a continuous war with the BJP/NDA also Delhi-based Union government over jurisdictional and constitutional issues. Moreover, shortly after its second coming, in April, AAP suffered a split within its ranks with Yogendra Yadav and Shanti Bhushan, who founded the party with its convenor Arvind Kejriwal and currently chief minister of Delhi state, expelled for œanti-party activities. The continuous agitational and confrontation politics of the AAP government have caused widespread public and media disillusionment. But the silver lining to AAP™s five-month stormy rule of Delhi state is that in its maiden Rs.41,129 crore budget 2015-16 presented to the legislative assembly by deputy chief and education minister Manish Sisodia on June 25, the AAP government has increased plan (mainly capital) expenditure for education to Rs.4,570 crore, a 106 percent hike over 2014-15. Moreover, the total outlay for education is raised to Rs.9,836 crore from Rs.7,432 crore last year, making the AAP government™s first budget the most education-friendly in the history of Delhi. œMore than double plan allocation for the education sector has been arrived at after deep thought and is based on comprehensive plans for both school and higher education sectors, said Sisodia, presenting the budget. The major highlights of the budget are recruitment of 20,000 new teachers by year end; promotion of 236 new schools; five new polytechnics; three more ITIs; construction of a second campus of GGSIP (Guru Gobind Singh, Indraprastha) University and upgrading the top-ranked Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology into a university. With a significantly larger capex budget, all government school classrooms will be provided with closed circuit television for safety, 50 schools will be transformed into model schools with modern facilities and specialised training for teachers, and all state government-funded colleges will be provided internet connectivity. While the AAP government™s maiden education-focused budget has been widely welcomed, respected K-12 educationists in the national capital advise caution. œThe quality of teachers recruited is more important than quantity. Moreover creating new model schools when the Kendriya Vidyalayas and Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas are proven models, is not the prescription to improve Delhi™s government schools. Instead, if all government schools are made Right to Education Act-compliant, no model is required, says Dr. Poonam Batra, professor of education at Delhi University. Unsurprisingly, given AAP™s populist leftist ideology, while…