New Delhi, Dec 5 (FN Agency) Punjab Congress Chief Navjot Singh Sidhu on Sunday participated in a protest by guest teachers from Delhi government schools in front of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s residence, days after the Delhi CM had participated in a protest by contractual teachers in Mohali, Punjab. As Congress and Aam Aadmi Party’s battle for Punjab goes on in the state, the election heat reached Delhi on Sunday, when Sidhu reached the Delhi Chief Minister’s residence to participate in a protest by guest teachers from government schools in Delhi. In a series of tweets ahead of joining the protest, Sidhu slammed the Delhi education model, that the AAP has been boasting off in the poll campaign in Punjab, and said, “Delhi Education Model is Contract Model … Delhi Govt has 1031 Schools while only 196 schools have Principals … 45 per cent teacher’s posts are vacant and Schools are run by 22,000 Guest Teachers on daily wages with every 15 days renewal of contracts.” “AAP promised to regularise contractual teachers by giving equal wages as permanent staff but made it worse by just having guest teachers.
Through School Management Committees, so called AAP volunteers earn 5 Lac yearly from Govt funds that earlier were meant for school’s development,” Sidhu alleged. “In your 2015 manifesto you promised 8 lakh new jobs and 20 new colleges in Delhi, where are the jobs and colleges? You have given only 440 Jobs in Delhi. On the contrary of your failed guarantees, unemployment rate of Delhi has increased by almost 5 times in last 5 years,” he said. “In 2015 there were 12,515 job vacancies for teachers in Delhi but in 2021 there are 19,907 job vacancies of teachers in Delhi. While AAP Govt is filing up vacant posts through guest lecturers.” On November 27, Kejriwal had participated in a protest outside Punjab School Education Board building in Mohali by teachers on contracts who were demanding their jobs be regularised. Last month, Delhi Education Minister Manish Sisodia had a war of words with Punjab Education Minister Pargat Singh over a comparison between school education system in Delhi and Punjab.