Punjab education minister Pargat Singh on Monday dared his Delhi counterpart Manish Sisodia to provide not only locations but several other vital parameters of 250 schools in the national capital for comparing them to those in Punjab.

Upping Punjab’s ante on the Delhi government’s claim of having a better school education infrastructure, Singh asked Sisodia to provide not merely the locations of schools but several other key parameters for the comparison of schools in the two states on the National Performance Grading Index (NPGI) 2021.

Singh demanded details like the number of students and permanent teachers, vacancies on teachers posts, besides their class 10 results of all 250 schools whose locations had been provided earlier by the Delhi minister for their comparison with schools in Punjab.

Sisodia had released the locations of 250 Delhi government schools on Monday after Singh, in response to his Delhi counterpart’s Thursday invite for joint visits to 10 schools each in the two states for the comparison, had on Friday said that he would rather compare 250 schools rather than merely 10.

I will not let you get away like this, said Singh, in an apparent bare-it-all mood.

Sisodia on Sunday had released a list of 250 schools, claiming that they had been transformed by the AAP government in five years and had urged Punjab to do the same to compare reforms and developments in schools by both the governments.

On Monday, the Delhi education minister asked Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi to name 250 schools in the state transformed by his regime.

Hours after Sisodia threw the challenge, Singh, in a series of tweets, dared him to provide various key parameters of Delhi schools, and not merely their locations, for comparison on the NPGI scale.

I think you were in such a hurry to respond that you didn’t even read what I had written. I had said we would compare on the parameters of the National Performance Grading Index 2021, said Singh in a tweet.

https://twitter.com/PargatSOfficial/status/1465273666984243200

He asked Sisodia to provide school-wise enrolment numbers, permanent teachers and vacancies, 10th results and the names of principals.

Singh also asked Sisodia to mention the figures from 2013-14 to 2019-20 so that everyone has a clear picture .

Singh said he had also asked for the same information earlier as well but I wonder what are you hiding.

But I will not let you get away like this, said Singh

When there is a decline in the number of students, what education reform are you doing? When there are no principals, who are you sending on training? When students are failing in 10th, who is going for higher education? Why talk about infrastructure when there are no new schools? he said in another tweet.

Singh doubted that Sisodia might be reluctant to discuss these points.

I will request CM Arvind Kejriwal to give the complete list. Let us decide once for all who is real and who is fake Aam Aadmi, said Singh in another tweet.

Responding to Sisodia’s Thursday invite for joint visits to 10 schools each in Delhi and Punjab, Singh had on Friday tweeted, “I welcome the Hon. Edu. (Education) Minister of Delhi Sh.@msisodia’s suggestion to compare Punjab govt schools with Delhi Schools. However, we will take 250 schools each of Punjab and Delhi instead of 10 schools.”

We will compare the schools on the NPGI scale. We will have a debate on school infrastructure and the number of smart classrooms. We will debate about the development of schools in rural and border areas of the state, Singh had then said.

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