SP Targets BJP Over UP School Mergers

The Samajwadi Party (SP) has turned the issue of school mergers in Uttar Pradesh into a political battle ahead of Teachers’ Day, accusing the BJP government of shutting down thousands of government schools in rural areas.

The party has launched a campaign under the banner ‘Pathshala Pukare’ and directed its workers to hold programmes outside schools that it claims have been closed or merged.

The campaign is aimed at using Teachers’ Day on September 5 to highlight what the Opposition describes as a “decade-long assault on rural education”. SP state president Shyam Lal Pal had issued directives on August 31 asking party workers to organise Teachers’ Day programmes near the sites of alleged school closures.

The campaign has already begun in Siddharthnagar, where SP workers organised a programme in Mohankoli village in the Shohratgarh constituency. Study kits were distributed among children whose local schools, according to the party, are no longer functioning.

SP Shikshak Sabha vice-president Marinder Mishra said the campaign was being carried out following instructions from party president Akhilesh Yadav to keep the focus on children in villages affected by the school mergers.

The party has alleged that around 26,000 primary and junior high schools have been closed over the past decade under the BJP government. Former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav has repeatedly said that reopening such schools would be among the first priorities of an SP government if the party returns to power in the 2027 Assembly elections.

SP Chhatra Sabha chief Imran Idris accused the government of being indifferent to the problems faced by children in rural areas. He claimed that many children had stopped attending school because their neighbourhood schools had been shut and the alternative schools were located too far away.

The issue has also been linked by the SP to a wider political campaign over the condition of government school infrastructure and facilities. The party has been highlighting its ‘School Thik Karo’ campaign, a grassroots initiative focused on improving government schools, along with the school merger issue.

The BJP government, however, has rejected the Opposition's claim that it has closed schools on a mass scale. Basic Education Minister Sandeep Singh has maintained that the state government has not decided to close a single school.

According to Singh, schools with fewer than 50 students are being paired or merged with nearby institutions within a one-kilometre radius. The government has said the exercise is intended to improve teaching quality.

The controversy over school mergers is likely to have significant implications for the upcoming 2027 Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, with the SP seeking to make it a major campaign issue.

The SP's campaign against school mergers reflects the party's efforts to highlight the BJP government's alleged neglect of rural education and to position itself as a champion of the rights of rural students.

As the debate over school mergers continues, it remains to be seen how the issue will play out in the run-up to the 2027 Assembly elections and what impact it will have on the fortunes of the SP and the BJP in Uttar Pradesh.