No school has been closed, just paired: CM | Lucknow News

Lucknow: Responding to the Opposition’s allegation that the UP govt was shutting down schools with low attendance, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath claimed in the Assembly on Thursday that no schools were being closed but converted into ‘integrated campuses’ with better facilities.“We are not closing but pairing schools. The 27,000 schools which have a low presence of students would be integrated with other basic schools within a radius of 1 Km. This would improve the student-teacher ratio and boost the standard of education. These integrated campuses would offer children education from pre-primary to senior secondary level,” Yogi said. He said a similar exercise was conducted in Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and other states, but Congress and other opposition parties never objected. The CM also slammed the opposition for making allegations of closing 29,000 schools. He said that UP had 1.56 lakh basic and affiliated schools. “Before 2017, all these schools faced prospects of closure. Our govt subsequently carried out ‘Operation Kayakalp’ to improve nearly 1 lakh schools,” he said.Yogi said his govt would not only augment the construction of ‘Atal Vidyalaya’ but also construct CM Abhyuday schools, PM Sri Schools and CM Composite schools. He said the Kasturba Gandhi Schools for girls were upgraded too.“But what are you teaching in PDA Pathshala?” Yogi charged, in an apparent reference to SP-backed pathshalas where children were reportedly taught A for Akhilesh (Yadav) and D for Dimple. “Don’t subject children to your poor political agenda,” he said. The CM announced that Balvatika and pre-primary classes will be started for children of 3-6 years of age, in which LKG, UKG, and nursery education will be provided. Along with this, a special package of Rs 100 crore was approved for the CM Nutrition Mission, so that a special diet can be provided to children suffering from malnutrition and anaemia.