The online classes are only helpful for those belonging to affluent families: Akhilesh Yadav (file)
Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday accused the Centre of following wrong policies in the education sector, alleging that it had led to chaos.
"Schools and colleges are closed because of corona. For online classes, the children belonging to poor families do not have smartphones," Mr Yadav said in a statement.
"There is a problem of network connectivity at many places, especially in villages"
The online classes are only helpful for those belonging to affluent families and the students belonging to the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes are getting "step-motherly" treatment from the government, Mr Yadav said.
The SP leader alleged the BJP government did not think about the livelihood of the teachers and other employees working in the educational institutions that got closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mr Yadav pointed out that there was pressure on the school managements not to take fees during this period, following which he said the guardians who were in a position to pay fees were not doing so.
As a result, he added, over 10 lakh employees were facing immense hardships.
According to Mr Yadav, some private colleges had paid salaries for March and April, while there are others who have not paid the salaries even for the month of March.
This is a serious problem before the people who are dependent on teaching work for their livelihood and some of them are facing depression, he said.