Ashish Sood
New Delhi: Delhi Education Minister Ashish Sood mounted a strong attack on the former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government, asserting that data presented in the Rajya Sabha has exposed the true reality behind its widely promoted “education revolution”. Sood alleged that what was showcased as a landmark education reform was, in reality, a “filtering policy” that systematically pushed thousands of students out of the mainstream education system in order to artificially enhance performance indicators.
Responding to the facts placed before the Upper House, Sood said it has now become abundantly clear that the previous AAP government’s education model was not structured to safeguard or nurture the future of students, but was instead aimed at improving results on paper.
He emphasised that these concerns were raised not by a BJP leader, but by AAP’s own Rajya Sabha MP, Swati Maliwal, who questioned whether the large-scale shifting of students failing Class 9 to the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) was genuinely intended to offer them a second chance.
“When even an AAP MP is compelled to raise a question in Parliament about whether children are being pushed out of the education system to inflate school performance statistics, the reality of the socalled education model becomes evident on its own,” Sood remarked.
Citing a written reply submitted by the Ministry of Education in the Rajya Sabha, Sood pointed out that more than 3.20 lakh students failed Class 9 in Delhi government schools over the last five years. The figures reveal a disturbing pattern, with 31,541 students failing in 2020–21, followed by 28,548 in 2021–22, a steep jump to 88,421 in 2022–23, an even higher 1,01,344 in 2023– 24, and 70,296 in 2024–25, bringing the cumulative total to 3,20,150 students.
He further noted that during the same period, over 71,000 students were admitted to NIOS, including as many as 29,436 admissions in the 2022–23 academic year alone. Sood argued that while NIOS is meant to serve as an alternative and supportive education system, the sheer scale of these numbers indicates that it was instead used to divert students away from the regular schooling framework.
“The data clearly indicates that NIOS was not utilised as a support mechanism but rather as a side route to move students out of mainstream schools,” the minister said, adding that the parliamentary question raised by Swati Maliwal was both valid and necessary.
Sood maintained that the Rajya Sabha data has exposed the weaknesses and failures of the previous government’s education policy and called for the adoption of a more student-centric approach that prioritises genuine learning outcomes over cosmetic statistical achievements.
Responding to the allegations, the Aam Aadmi Party said that the Delhi Education Minister should first educate himself, asserting that the charge of forcing Class 9 failed students into NIOS is factually incorrect and illogical.
The party pointed out that out of the nearly 3.2 lakh students who failed during the five-year period, only about 71,000 enrolled in NIOS, which accounts for roughly 22 per cent. According to AAP, these students chose NIOS voluntarily to avoid repeating the same class. The party questioned the logic behind the accusation, arguing that if the intention had been to “polish statistics,” as claimed by the BJP-led government’s Education Minister, then all students would have been pushed into NIOS, not just a fraction.
AAP further advised the minister to apply independent judgment and verify facts before reiterating what it termed as unfounded claims.
