Schools still run under tress in UP: Hema Malini

New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP and veteran film artiste Hema Malini on Tuesday in Lok Sabha criticised the laxity on part of several states, including the party-ruled Uttar Pradesh, towards implementing the Centre’s education schemes, due to which the admission rate in government-run schools is poor and the student-teacher ratio is completely lop-sided.

Highlighting the importance of introducing the public-private partnership (PPP) model in school education across the country, Ms Malini while speaking during Zero Hour, noted that it was only after the introduction of the Right To Education law (which was enacted by the erstwhile UPA regime) in 2009 that the number of schools had increased, teachers appointments had gone up and children’s enrolment in government schools had seen an improvement after playgrounds and toilets had been set up for them.

However she lamanted the fact that despite the initiatives of the Centre, the situation is such that the admission rate of children in government schools is less than 60 per cent and children are not going to school.

“This is mainly due to the fact that several states have not implemented the Centre’s policies properly and shown a lot of laxity. I have seen in many states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and even in Uttar Pradesh as well as in my own parliamentary constituency (Mathura) that four to five schools are running from a single building, and for 100 students only one teacher is there. While in many cases students are without teachers and vice versa,” Ms Malini pointed out.

She further added that poor students in rural areas are not getting quality education and even in modern times, schools are running under trees.

“Therefore to ensure quality education, Centre should take up the PPP model just like it is done in the field of higher education,” the noted actress said.