New Delhi, June 8: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday accused the British of destroying the Indian education system and turning it into an assembly-line of clerk making, as he called on students to train to become job givers, not seekers.
Kejriwal made the remarks while addressing the inauguration ceremony of the east Delhi campus of Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (GGSIPU), during which he was interrupted by slogans by BJP workers.
Kejriwal dedicated the new campus to the country and termed it one of the best the country has.
“It has excellent facilities and in terms of architecture, it can be counted as one of the best campuses in the country. This campus will accommodate 2,500 students. Students from across the country will come and live around here, causing a rise in the number of hostels and paying guest joints.
“The number of shops and restaurants will also increase in the area as a consequence of the university,” he said.
Kejriwal said that every year 2.5 lakh boys and girls complete their schooling in the city and become ready for college. Roughly 1.5 lakh of these students complete their schooling from government schools and the rest from private schools, he added.
“When we formed the government for the first time in 2015, we found that in Delhi there were college seats for only around 1.1 lakh of these children. So, there was a deficit of around 1.4 lakh seats.
“In the last 7-8 years, we have been able to increase the number of college seats from 1.1 lakh to 1.5 lakh. We still have a deficit of 1 lakh college seats, and we are working to address this problem,” he said, stressing that the AAP gave a model for school education and now its focus is on higher education.
The CM in his speech also slammed British bureaucrat Lord Macaulay for creating an education system that still exists, merely to churn out educated clerks.
“Prior to that there was another system of education that I have heard about which was very successful. There were acharyas in every village and the children of the peasants studied together with the children of the king,” he said.
He added that the British in the 1830s supplanted the Indian education system with their own, not to enlighten the natives, but to raise educated clerks to help the foreign bureaucracy ruling the country.
“Unfortunately, this system still continues in the country. We complete our BA and then do an MA and some even do a PhD, but we still struggle to get a job after all this struggle. What is the point in doing all this if there are no jobs for our students?” he asked.
“On this campus, students will be taught automation, design, artificial intelligence, machine learning, data management, and innovation. This is the demand of the technological world,” he said.
Kejriwal said that the vice-chancellor of every university should be responsible for getting students jobs, as he stressed on students to become employers and not go after jobs which are in scarcity in the country. (PTI)
