LUCKNOW Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday upped the ante against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), alleging that it weakened the public education system by shutting down thousands of government schools.
“The BJP government first conspired to close 27,000 government schools in Uttar Pradesh under the guise of mergers. Now, the ‘anti-education’ BJP government has admitted in the Rajya Sabha that 18,727 government schools have closed down during the last five years of BJP rule,” he said in a statement.
“This is a huge conspiracy against our country’s future. Do the BJP and its allies want only the children of the rich to study, and not the deprived children of the PDA community,” he asked.
The SP chief accused the BJP of maintaining an “anti-education mindset”, claiming the government was not only closing schools but also failing to ensure timely distribution of books.
Speaking on the 2027 UP assembly polls, Yadav stated: “We believe the next elections will be historic with education becoming a decisive issue in defeating or removing the BJP, as even the poorest families, especially mothers, want to educate their children. This time, women will defeat the BJP.”
“The BJP will pretend to deposit some money into accounts, but the word has spread to villages, streets and neighborhoods that if government schools are closed, private schools will begin to loot, and more money will be spent on children’s education than what is deposited into the accounts,” Yadav alleged.
“BJP does not want to allow education to continue in schools that are still functioning, and that is why they are engaging teachers in tasks other than teaching. This demoralises real teachers, as they feel they are unable to fulfill their teaching duties,” he added.
The SP chief added that the symbolic ‘PDA Pathshala’ movement needs to be transformed into a real movement, only then will generations of exploited and deprived communities be able to study and progress.
