Chandigarh: Senior Congress leader and former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Saturday said that NITI Aayog has once again shown the mirror to the BJP government of the state as its report has revealed that Haryana is far behind other states in terms of higher education.
“Haryana has lagged behind even its closest neighbouring states. The basis for the report is financing, ranking and quality of education. The report of NITI Aayog shows that even in terms of university ranking, Haryana is performing poorly compared to other states,” Hooda said.
Hooda, a two-time chief minister, alleged the BJP government is making less budgetary allocation for the education sector compared to neighbouring states. Even two years ago, the Haryana government had proposed to give loans to the state's public universities in place of grant-in-aid. Alleging that due to the BJP's indifferent attitude towards education, the dropout rate in higher education is continuously increasing, he further held that a large number of seats are remaining vacant in the courses of colleges and universities.
The report of NITI Aayog says the density of higher education in Haryana is also less as compared to the neighbouring states, and the quality of higher education and the lack of regular teachers in large numbers also remains a matter of concern, he said.
Quoting a recent news report that only one guest teacher has been appointed for 96 girl students in the school of Kalanwali in Sirsa who has the responsibility of teaching the girl students of all classes, maintaining school records, attending meetings and even mid-day meals, Hooda further held that this is the condition of government schools not only in Kalanwali but in the entire state.
