NEW DELHI: Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), has written to education ministers across states seeking transparency on the condition of government schools, teacher vacancies, funding and access to basic and digital facilities.In identical letters posted on X, Dipke said the country needs to know what steps are being taken to improve government schools and urged state governments to make relevant data public.Dipke posed six key questions to the education ministers, seeking details on the following:
School renovations : How many government schools have been renovated in the last five years and how many still require repairs or complete renovation?- Teacher vacancies: How many teaching posts are sanctioned, how many are filled and how many remain vacant?
- School funding: How much funding has been allocated to government schools over the past five years and how much has actually been spent?
- Need for more schools: How many additional government schools are required to ensure reasonable access to quality education for children?
- Non-teaching duties: What non-teaching duties and responsibilities are being assigned to government school teachers apart from teaching?
- Basic and digital facilities: How many government schools have adequate computers and digital-learning facilities, clean and functional toilets, and proper sports facilities and equipment?
The CJP’s move comes amid its ongoing campaign highlighting alleged deficiencies in government schools. Dipke said visuals circulating on social media showed children studying without basic facilities such as safe drinking water, functional toilets, proper classrooms and benches.“It has been 80 years since India gained Independence… No child in this country should be forced to study in such conditions. They are being treated worse than animals,” he said in the letter.The youth-led outfit has been demanding greater public spending on education and improvements to school infrastructure. Its campaign recently also led to a confrontation during a visit to a government school in Rajasthan, where a CJP team, including co-convenor Ashutosh Ranka, was allegedly assaulted. The CJP accused BJP workers of carrying out the attack, a charge disputed by the party, and cross FIRs were subsequently filed.Dipke said the questions were not directed 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.The CJP has urged state education ministries to make the requested information public and take urgent measures to address deficiencies in government schools, calling for improvements to public education infrastructure to be undertaken “on a war footing”.