LUCKNOW The UP basic education department’s decision to merge government primary and higher schools with less than 50 students snowballed into a political controversy, after which the department apparently backed down, stating that no process was in progress to close a school.

“Reports published in a section of the media regarding the closure of 27,000 basic schools by merging them with neighboring schools are misleading and baseless. No process is underway to close a school,” we read on social media on Monday.

The contradiction/clarification came at 11:44 am, barely 29 minutes after Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra attacked the UP government over the proposed closure of 27,000 government schools in the state following their merger.

In her social media post, Priyanka said, “The BJP government in UP has decided to close 27,764 primary and primary schools. This measure goes against the education sector as well as the children of Dalits, backward, poor and underprivileged sections.

His post on children from all walks of life. »

“The aim of social protection policies and programs is not to generate profit but rather to ensure the well-being of people. The BJP does not want education to be accessible to children from the weaker sections,” she added.

Director General (School Education) Kanchan Verma said, “There has been a communication from the Government of India and we are having discussions with our officers. No decisions have been made to merge or close schools. The minutes of the meeting with the officers do not constitute an order or decision.

The Ministry of Basic Education’s plan to merge schools has also drawn criticism from the teachers’ association. Dinesh Chandra Sharma, president of the UP Primary Teachers’ Association, said in his post on X that if this news is misleading, then the government should issue a written denial in this regard.

Vipin Bihari, a state scholarship teacher, wrote on his X account: “The government should immediately withdraw this decision. If this priority is established, it will become a norm in the future, and no one will be able to change it, and people will have to fight for children’s education.

“The second loss concerns the image of the government, because the emergence of such news just before the by-elections can influence the decision of the people,” his message read.