With Punjab schools outshining  Delhi in National Achievement Survey (NAS) 2021 released by Union Education Ministry, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), on Thursday, criticised the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for allegedly trying to enforce the Delhi Government’s “failed education model” on Punjabis.

SAD spokesman Dr Daljit Singh Cheema said Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann should stop deriding Punjab schools and its education standards following the release of the NAS 2021 which has ranked Punjab students ahead of Delhi at all levels of school education.

Asking the CM to congratulate the government school children of Punjab and seek their apology for defaming them, Dr. Cheema said the students of Punjab had fared better than their counterparts in Delhi in the survey which evaluated the education quality and overall health of the education system in the country.

“It is now clear that the much-hyped Delhi model of schoolchildren which was used as a propaganda tool by AAP in Punjab as well as countrywide is a complete failure.  Bhagwant Mann should acknowledge this fact and not try to impose it on Punjabis besides working to strengthen the current Punjab Model which had given good dividends to the State in the national survey,” the SAD spokesperson said.

The former education minister Dr Cheema said school children from Punjab had fared better than their counterparts in Delhi when compared class-wise right from class three, class five, class eight, and class ten.

He said Punjab students stood first as far as comprehending mathematics was concerned, second in the case of social sciences, and third in the case of English.

“We must build on this achievement by developing both short as well as long-term interventions to improve learning levels further as per the findings of the independent survey conducted by the union education ministry. The chief minister should now reject the Delhi Model of school education firmly. Not doing so would amount to betraying the interests of Punjab and Punjabis,” the Akali leader said.

Dr Cheema said the education system of any state was built over a period of time and lauded the vision of former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal who had not only given a fillip to school education in the State but came up with the concept of Meritorious Schools and Adarsh Schools to provide ultra-modern education to the poorest of the poor.