After much hue and cry by the opposition leaders, Uttar Pradesh government on Monday denied the news of closure of over 27,000 primary schools in the state.

State Director General of Basic Education Kanchan Verma said that reports in the media that over 27000 schools in the state will be closed are totally baseless and misleading. She claimed that no such process is underway. Issuing a statement here on Monday, she said that there are media reports of closing over 27000 primary schools by merging them with nearby schools. This is absolutely misleading and baseless and not a single school is being closed in the state.

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She said that the Primary Education Department of the state is making continuous efforts to develop human resources and infrastructure in schools, improve the quality of education and reduce the drop out rate of students, especially girls. From this point of view, various studies are conducted from time to time. Our aim is to further improve the quality of education.

Meanwhile, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in her statement on Monday had criticised the UP government on closing of 27,764 primary and junior schools in the state. ” This step is against the education sector as well as the children of Dalit, backward, poor and deprived sections. The UPA government had brought the Right to Education Act, under which arrangements were made that there should be a primary school within every kilometer radius so that school is accessible to children of every section. The objective of welfare policies and schemes is not to earn profits but to provide welfare to the public. BJP does not want education to be accessible to children from weaker sections,” she alleged.

On the other hand , BSP chief Mayawati said that the decision of the state government to close 27,764 primary and upper primary schools with less than 50 students is not appropriate. ” In such a situation, where and how will poor children study? Instead of merging them with other schools, the state government should take measures to improve them by making necessary improvements,” she said.

In a statement issued on social media on Sunday, the BSP supremo said that ,” the condition of primary and secondary education, especially in UP and most of the states of the country, is bad. Because of this, crores of children from poor families are deprived of good education and proper education. The decision of the Odisha government to close schools with less girl students is also unfair. The result of these anti-poor and anti-people policies of the governments is that people are being forced to teach their children in private schools. As is clear from the survey, but it is not right for the government to close them down instead of making necessary improvements by giving proper money and attention to education”.