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Manish Sisodia, deputy chief minister of Delhi who also holds the education portfolio, claimed that Delhi government schools did better than private schools for the second year in a row after the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) released the results of Class XII for the year 2017. Sisodia also claimed that Delhi government schools had 2% better results than private schools in 2016 and the lead increased to 9% in 2017. Both claims are incorrect, according to this report by Factly.in, a data journalism portal.

Union minister for urban development M Venkaiah Naidu tweeted saying Delhi government schools taking a 9% lead over private schools is impressive.

CBSE put out a detailed statistical statement that tells a different story.

Sisodia seems to have compared the pass percentage of government schools in Delhi and private schools across India.

Statement 1: Delhi government schools vs private schools

It is not the second time that Delhi government schools have done better than Delhi private schools, as Sisodia claimed--it is the third year in a row, according to CBSE data.

Delhi government schools have fared better than their private counterparts since 2015.

Sisodia’s claim that the pass percentage in Delhi government schools is 88.27% is also incorrect--it is 88.36%, according to data released by CBSE.

The pass percentage of Delhi private schools is 84.2%, and not 79.27% as tweeted by Sisodia. The pass percentage of private schools at the all-India level is 79.27%.

Source: Central Board of Secondary Education

Statement 2: Government schools did 9% better in 2017

Sisodia’s second tweet suggested that Delhi’s government school performance was nine percentage points better than private schools in 2017, compared to two percentage points in 2016.

While he is right about the two percentage point lead in 2016 (government: 88.98%, private: 86.67%), he is wrong about the nine percentage point lead in 2017.

Sisodia, as we said, seems to have considered the all India private school pass percentage of 79.27% instead of Delhi’s 84.2% to arrive at the nine percentage point figure. The lead, therefore, is four percentage points.

Assuming Sisodia meant to compare with the all-India private school pass percentage, the lead would have been 6.5 percentage points in 2016 and not two percentage points.

Have government schools done better under AAP?

The government schools in Delhi have maintained a consistent pass percentage of around 88% in each of the years starting 2013.

During the same period, the pass percentage in private schools has slipped from 91.83% in 2013 to 84.2% in 2017.

Even at the national level, the pass percentage in private schools slipped from 82.31% in 2013 to 79.27% in 2017. The government school pass percentage slipped from 84.89% in 2013 to 82.29% in 2017.

While the performance of Delhi government schools has not improved in terms of absolute pass percentage during the Aam Aadmi Party rule, they have maintained 88% when all others slipped.

(Dubbudu has been working on issues related to the Right to Information for a decade. He is a data/information enthusiast & is passionate about governance/policy issues. Factly.in is dedicated to making public data meaningful.)

Rakesh Dubbudu