Chandigarh, March 9: At the time when state Congress chief and former chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh is going about promising moon to the people, one has to go by his earlier track record, especially in the field of education in general and that of vocational education in particular. It is the performance that is always the best test.
The expenditure on vocational education during the period 2002-2007 was nil. What a great achievement. This was the period when Capt. Amarinder Singh headed the Congress government in the state. Work in earnest on turning the youth employable started in right earnest when the Akali Dal government headed by Parkash Singh Badal took over in 2007.
Total expenditure on providing vocational education has been 69.97 crore since 2007 that has benefited 25,599 persons. It may be mentioned that Capt Amarinder Singh is promising massive job opportunities without outlining any road map while his earlier record has been the worst. The first point is providing basic facilities to the people and that is in the field of education.
Total expenditure on school education during 2002-2007 was Rs 9621 cr as compared to Rs 43740 crore during the last nine years of the Badal government. This is the sector that had been the worst hit during Amarinder government.
Providing boarding facilities especially to the girl students has been another land mark of the present government. The total number of girls hostel opened from 2002-2007 was just two having 111 students. The number has now gone up to 44 accommodating 5207 students. There is just no comparison.
What is the worst is that it was the Amarinder government that started private education at the cost of government schools and colleges on the logic that fewer students joined government schools. The effort should have been to revive what used to be the best education system in Punjab but got hit during militancy. It is only since 2007 that the focus has shifted back to government schools to provide free to affordable education to the students. The meritorious and model schools provide the best of education and these schools have been the major initiative taken by the Chief Minister during this period.
When Capt Amarinder Singh goes about interacting with college students, these are the questions that need to be posed to him before trusting his words. The state has now seven meritorious schools imparting quality education to 6377 students and model schools where the number of students now is 37,727. Then there are Adarsh schools.
Here is another significant aspect of the school education in Punjab. The state was adjudged as No 1 in 2009-10 in infrastructure at primary level by the ministry of human resources development and National University of Planning Affiliation. Punjab was at No 2 in case of infrastructure at upper primary level during the same period.
Punjab stood at Ist place in national level inspire award e-management in 2014-15 by the ministry of environment.
It is the performance that speaks for itself and so is the non-performance.
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