Guwahati: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Assam counterpart Himanta Biswa Sarma engaged in a Twitter spat over the closure of schools in Assam.
The war of words between the two chief ministers started following a report on August 24 that the Assam government would shut down around 34 schools which performed poorly in the board examination.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted that the closure of schools was not a solution and there was a need for the opening of more schools across the country. Instead of closing schools, there was a need for improvement in their conditions and studies, he said.
Sarma took to Twitter on August 25 to lash out at Kejriwal over the amalgamation of schools and asked him to “do his homework” before commenting. He claimed the state government has provincialised or taken over private schools into the government fold and this includes 6,802 elementary and 1,589 secondary schools, 81 Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya, three Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Avashik Vidyalaya and 97 tea garden model schools.
On Friday, however, Kejriwal tweeted that his intention was not to point out the flaws of the Assam government.
“We are all one nation. We have to learn from each other. Only then will India become the number one country. I will come to Assam. Tell me when can I come? You show your good work in the field of education. You come to Delhi, I will show you the progress here,” he tweeted in Hindi.
Assam Minister Pijush Hazarika had on Thursday tried to correct Kejriwal while accusing him of “destroying” the education quality in Delhi. Hazarika cited a media report about the “dropout policy” of the Delhi government.
Notably, 34 government or government-aided schools and another 57 venture schools that had zero pass percentage have already been shortlisted to be shut down or merged with other schools.
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