Dipke Launches ‘School Thik Karo’ Campaign, Pushes For Private School Fee Cap Nationwide

Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) convenor Abhijeet Dipke on Saturday launched the ‘School Thik Karo’ campaign from his native village in Maharashtra’s Hingoli district, using Independence Day to highlight what he described as inadequate infrastructure in government-run schools. Dipke inspected a Zilla Parishad school in Santuk Pimpri and demanded improvements in basic facilities, while also calling for a cap on fees charged by private schools.

Dipke visited the school after attending an Independence Day flag-hoisting ceremony in his village. During his inspection, he claimed that toilets at the school did not have a water supply and alleged that the building had broken windows and insufficient benches for students. He questioned how the country could achieve development if basic facilities were still unavailable in government schools decades after Independence.

"If basic things like water are missing from government-run schools even 80 years after India became independent, how is the country going to develop?" Dipke told reporters. He also questioned whether students could be expected to return home whenever they needed to use a toilet because their school did not have adequate water facilities. During the inspection, he further claimed that the washroom appeared to have been cleaned shortly before his arrival.

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Dipke said the campaign would collect information on infrastructure and basic amenities from government schools across Maharashtra and eventually from schools elsewhere in the country. He said campaign workers had prepared a checklist covering facilities available to students, which would be used to compile data on the condition of government-run schools. In the next phase, he said, he would visit schools in other talukas of Maharashtra to assess their facilities.

The CJP convenor also raised broader concerns about government education policy and alleged that inadequate funding was affecting public education. He claimed that government-run schools were being shut down to benefit private institutions and alleged that more than 94,000 state-run schools had been closed across India over the past decade. These claims were presented by Dipke as evidence of what he described as a failure to provide equal educational opportunities.

Dipke argued that government schools should offer students adequate infrastructure and equal opportunities regardless of their background. He referred to complaints from students about difficulties reaching schools, including poor roads, and said the absence of basic facilities undermined the country's development goals. He also questioned the logic of reducing the availability of government schools when more institutions were needed to provide accessible education.

The campaign is also expected to focus on private-school fees. Dipke called for a cap on fees charged by private schools, arguing that families should not be placed under excessive financial pressure to provide children with access to quality education. He questioned whether students who achieve academic success in government schools would continue to rely on private institutions if public schools were equipped with adequate facilities.

Dipke said the CJP would also launch a similar campaign focusing on the condition of public hospitals. The proposed initiative would examine basic healthcare facilities and infrastructure, extending the party's stated campaign against gaps in public services. The ‘School Thik Karo’ campaign, meanwhile, is expected to begin with inspections and data collection in Maharashtra before being expanded more widely, according to Dipke.

The Independence Day launch placed education and public infrastructure at the centre of Dipke's political message. By inspecting a government school in his native village and documenting the facilities he alleged were lacking, he sought to highlight what he described as inequalities between public and private education. The campaign's next stages will focus on gathering information from more schools and using the findings to press for improvements in government education infrastructure and regulation of private-school fees.

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