CHANDIGARH: The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today asked chief minister Bhagwant Singh Mann to visit Meritorious and Adarsh schools established by the erstwhile SAD led government which along with other reformatory measures had taken Punjab to the number two slot in the national survey on school education instead of blindly following other models.
In a statement here, senior SAD leader Maheshinder Grewal said it would do well for the State if the chief minister also took his officers to the Meritorious and Adarsh schools to understand the philosophy behind their establishment by former chief minister S Parkash Singh Badal. “Punjab needs to build on its strengths instead of importing foreign models into the State. The AAP government should reverse the earlier Congress government policy to let these institutions decay by denying them funds and quality teachers. In fact the concept should be expanded to ensure the success of the core philosophy behind them – to give a push to rural students from underprivileged sections of society to compete with the best in India and the world”.
Mr Grewal said the chief minister’s visit to these institutions in Punjab along with his top officers would arrest the decline in their standards during the last five years. “The chief minister will simultaneously get an idea of the quality education initiative of the erstwhile SAD led government which needs to be spread, even to other States”.
Mr Grewal said provision of school uniforms and regulating fee structure of private schools was needed but the government should also look into the functioning of private universities who were fleecing students in one way or the other. “These institutions are not only making changes in courses and relegating some courses and decreasing the student intake in others which is having an adverse effect on the academic atmosphere in the State. Moreover an impression had gained ground that the owners of these Universities have a say in the present government and that now they are free to do as they please. This impression should be corrected by ensuring the private universities follow all norms and do not fleece students in any manner whatsoever”, Mr Grewal added. EOM