Will extend Business Blasters classes to Delhi colleges too: Kejriwal

Speaking at Delhi government’s Excellence in Education Awards for schools and students, Kejriwal said: “In this year’s budget, we will make a provision for the Business Blasters programme and entrepreneurship classes in Delhi’s colleges. I hope that the way this was successful in schools, it will be successful in colleges too. There will be meaning to education — after being educated, a child will be capable of getting themselves employed.”

Kejriwal pointed out that a problem in the country today is that of employment, where people are educated but not employed. “If they don’t get jobs, what is the point of education and degrees? So, we started the Business Blasters programme in Delhi schools. In class 11 and 12, students are given seed money to launch small businesses,” he said.

“One thing that has happened because of this is that when we speak to students of classes 11 and 12, they say they will do business, and they will become people who offer employment to others. Now, we need to take this to colleges, that will be practical. We will bring final year and pre-final year students of colleges into the Business Blasters programme so that when they finish college, they are able to offer employment to others,” Kejriwal said.

The Business Blasters programme was launched in 2021, and the entrepreneurship mindset curriculum began as a pilot project in government schools in 2019 for students from classes 9 to 12.

Kejriwal said at the event: “When the British came to the country, they thought that ruling the country would be difficult unless they destroy our education system. They sent Macaulay and destroyed our gurukuls where skills were being taught. They brought in a system of rote learning, which provides degrees but not employment. Unfortunately, we didn’t change this education system after Independence.”

He added: “We said that we will make our government schools so good that people will voluntarily get their children enrolled in them. I didn’t think this would happen so quickly. I thought this would take 15-20 years. We have achieved this in 7 to 8 years. Now, our government schools are competing with private ones. Results in government schools are better than those of private ones. Today, we have achieved our aim, which was that children of the poor and the rich should be able to get the same education.”