NEW DELHI: Abhijeet Dipke, founder and convenor of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), has demanded transparency on government school funding, infrastructure and staffing. Addressing an open letter to the education ministers across states, he said citizens have a right to know what steps are being taken to improve public education.He posed six questions to the ministers regarding the condition and facilities inside the government schools. He also asked them to publicly disclose details on infrastructure, teacher vacancies, funding, digital facilities and the workload of teaching staff.Dipke posted a letter on his X account with the caption, “Letter to the Education Ministers of all states. The country needs to know what steps are being taken to improve government schools.”He asked the ministry to disclose spending on government schools and the number of additional schools required to provide children with reasonable access to quality education.The six questions raised by Dipke are:
- School renovations: How many government schools in the state have been renovated in the last five years, and how many currently require repairs or complete renovation?
- Teacher vacancies: How many teaching positions are currently sanctioned, how many are filled, and how many remain vacant?
- School funding: How much money has been allocated for government schools in the last five years, and how much of it has actually been spent?
- Need for more schools: How many additional government schools are required to ensure that every child has reasonable access to quality education?
- Non-teaching duties: Apart from teaching, what non-teaching duties and responsibilities are assigned to government school teachers?
- Basic and digital facilities: How many government schools currently have adequate access to computers and digital learning facilities, clean and functional toilets, and proper sports facilities and equipment for children?
Dipke’s questions came against the backdrop of concerns over basic facilities in government schools. In his letter, he said children in many government schools still lack access to safe drinking water, functional washrooms and proper classrooms, while some reportedly do not even have basic benches to sit on.“The visuals emerging from government schools and circulating on social media should make all of us deeply concerned. No child in this country should be forced to study in such conditions. They are being treated worse than animals,” he said.
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He argued that improving public education should be treated as an urgent priority and called for schools to be improved “on a war footing”. At the same time, he said the public should first be given a clear picture of the existing situation.Dipke stressed that his questions were not aimed at any particular political party or government.“This is not about politics or any one government. This is about the future of our children,” he said, adding that every child deserves “a safe classroom, clean drinking water, a functional washroom, a bench to sit on, and a teacher to teach them.”He urged the ministry to make the requested information public and take urgent measures to ensure that inadequate infrastructure does not deny children access to dignified education.