School thik karo: CJP's Abhijeet Dipke's latest campaign over poor govt schools

CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke launched the School Thik Karo campaign after inspecting a Zilla Parishad school in Maharashtra's Hingoli. He said failing government schools and costly private education are denying poor students equal opportunity.

In Short

• Abhijeet Dipke claims no water, broken windows, few benches in govt schools
• Demands capping of private school fees and better public hospital conditions
• Claims over 94,000 state-run schools shut in last decade, harming education access

Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke on Saturday launched the "School Thik Karo" campaign from his native village in Maharashtra's Hingoli district, alleging that poor students were suffering because of the government's neglect of state-run schools. He also demanded a cap on private school fees and said his outfit would launch a similar movement over poor conditions at public hospitals.

Dipke travelled to Santuk Pimpri, attended a flag-hoisting ceremony on Independence Day, and then visited a Zilla Parishad school to inspect its basic facilities. He alleged that the toilets had no water supply, windows were broken and there were too few benches for students, and said the condition of such schools raised serious questions about equal access to education.

"If basic things like water are missing from government-run schools even 80 years after India became independent, how is the country going to develop?" Dipke told reporters. He later repeated the point, asking, "If water is not available at schools, will students go to their homes to use toilets?"

Dipke said his outfit had prepared a form with a checklist to record whether schools had basic amenities. "We have a form comprising a checklist where it can be mentioned whether there are basic amenities available in the school or not. We will gather the data from schools located in Maharashtra and nationwide. Then we will compile the data," he said.

He added that in the next phase of the "School Thik Karo" campaign, he would visit government-run schools in other talukas of Maharashtra to check facilities.

He alleged that the Centre's education budget had been reduced and claimed that state-run schools were being shut to benefit private institutions. "We have seen that over 94,000 state-run schools have been shut down in the past ten years in India. How can a nation be strengthened by shutting down schools when more schools need to be opened?" he asked.

He also said, "If children achieve big after studying in government schools, who will go to private schools?"

Dipke said the government had failed to provide facilities in schools and that students were not getting equal opportunity. "There should be freedom of equal opportunities. Until equal opportunity is available, we cannot say that our country is developing. The students are making videos saying they don't have good roads to reach their schools. This shows the government has failed to provide facilities at state-run schools," he said.

During the inspection, Dipke claimed the washroom had apparently been cleaned just before his arrival. He also alleged that broken windows at the school had been covered with banners of Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.

"This is a satire on the system of our country. There are no benches in the school. There are only four benches while the number of students is more. If there are benches in private schools, why not in government schools?" he said.

He said the CJP would also take up issues in public hospitals. "We are going to raise health-related issues. When we visit public hospitals, we see people (patients) sleeping on the floor. People have to wait for surgeries. For a CT scan, the wait extends to one week," he alleged.

He also said political discourse would not be shaped only by cities. "People should come forward and ask the government about utilisation of funds. We will see that youth from rural areas will come forward. Politics in the country will not be decided by the people in cities, but young people from rural areas will also participate in it," Dipke added.

Dipke demanded that private school fees be capped. "People are paying Rs 1-1.5 lakh in fees. How will poor children get education? Therefore, fees of private schools should be capped," he said.

Earlier in the day, before leaving for his village, he had said in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar that political parties had failed to improve the infrastructure and quality of government schools.

"People have now understood that they should talk about education, which is the need of the hour. No matter which political party ruled, nobody worked for government schools in states. Now there is a need, and we can make them work by asking questions," he told reporters.

He also questioned the source of funding for large banners put up in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar during a Tiranga rally held in the presence of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday.

Dipke had announced the nationwide campaign on Monday and urged parents to conduct social audits of basic facilities in schools and sarpanches to work towards improving them. "We have made a new Parliament, a new PM house. Why have we not been able to build new schools in our villages? Do we not consider the children of farmers and labourers the future of our country?" he had asked, while also saying that children in villages still walk long distances to school and often do not get basic facilities such as drinking water and toilets.

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