Delhi Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister Manish Sisodia on Friday said the country was faced with three big challenges: every child not receiving quality education, the growing problem of unemployment and low economic progress. In such a situation, it is necessary that the country’s youth should work hard to meet these challenges with the same spirit of patriotism and passion which was visible in the case of revolutionaries like Shaheed Asfaqullah Khan who got India its freedom.

Sisodia made these remarks while addressing students at Netaji Subhash University of Technology on the occasion of the 121st birth anniversary celebration of the great patriot, Shaheed Asfaqullah Khan.

He said the Kejriwal government was nurturing patriotism in Delhi government school students through its ‘deshbhakti’, happiness and entrepreneurship mindset curriculums to enable them to meet the present-day challenges before the country. Within one week, more than 12,000 youngsters have joined the mentorship programme the government has started. Each of these young people will mentor five children from Delhi schools.

It is noteworthy that while tributes were being paid to Shaheed Asfaqullah Khan on his birth anniversary, a World Class Skill Centre, a High Performing Computer Centre, a World-Class Art Studio and Shaheed Asfaqullah Fitness Centre commenced at this university.

Sisodia said, “Patriotism is within all of us, but we adopt patriotism as per our convenience. The Kejriwal government has initiated the deshbhakti curriculum in the schools of Delhi to expand upon this patriotism. Its purpose is to increase the scope of adopting patriotism in everyday life and to eliminate the fragmented patriotism as it exists today.”

The Deputy Chief Minister pointed out that before Independence, the biggest challenge in the country was to drive out the British. Today too there are some challenges before the country which need to be met.

He pointed out that every child in the country was not getting good quality education. While some children receive excellent education, there are many who do not.

“We need to set a minimum benchmark. We have to ensure that 100 per cent of the children in the country get quality education”, Sisodia said.

He also said unemployment was at its peak in the country today. Even educated youth are unemployed. There is need to uproot this problem.

Sisodia added that the third problem before the country was the slow economic progress. Around 40-50 years ago, it was there in the books that India was a developing country. The same situation exists today too.