Bharatiya Janata Party leader Kapil Mishra falsely claimed on Friday that a New York Times article about the Aam Aadmi Party's efforts to transform Delhi's government schools used a photo of a private school in the capital.
Mishra shared photos of students in St. Mary's School, Delhi claiming the school featured by NYT in their story was a privately run school and not Sarvoday Vidyalaya, a government school run by AAP.
BOOM was able to independently verify that the photos published by NYT were taken at the Sarvodaya Vidyalaya in New Delhi's Kakrola located in Sector 16-B of the area.
Mishra tweeted a set of two photos - a New York Times photo of a classroom at Sarvodaya Vidyalaya, New Delhi and another photo from a private school - Mother Mary's School in Delhi falsely claiming that the students in both photos are wearing the same uniforms.
The New York Times published the article online on August 16, 2022, and on the front page of its international edition on August 18, 2022. The report praised the ruling Aam Aadmi Party for overhauling the education system in the national capital and mentioned AAP leader Manish Sisodia for his role in transforming government-run schools since 2015. The same article was also republished by Khaleej Times crediting NYT.
Another claim went viral calling the NYT article paid content, However, BOOM found this claim to be false. Read our fact check below
Mishra tweeted a collage with a screenshot of the NYT story on the left and a photo of girl students from St. Mary's school posing with their teacher on the right. His tweet in Hindi claimed that the article in NYT was a paid promotion by AAP and despite that they passed off a private school as a government-run school. The tweet translates to, "Got the news published by paying money in New York Times and Khaleej Times, but the habit of lying and theft did not go away. These photos are not of Delhi's government school but of the children of Mother Mary School of Mayur Vihar. Kejriwal and Sisodia are selling lies in the country as well as abroad"
(In Hindi - न्यू यॉर्क टाइम्स और ख़लीज़ टाइम्स में पैसे देकर ख़बर तो छपवा ली , पर झूठ और चोरी की आदत नहीं गयी. ये फ़ोटो दिल्ली के सरकारी स्कूल की नहीं बल्कि मयूर विहार के मदर मैरी स्कूल के बच्चों की हैं. केजरीवाल और सिसोदिया देश में भी झूठ बेच रहे हैं और विदेश में भी)
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Several Congress and BJP leaders also falsely claimed that that the photo of the NYT story shared by AAP leaders and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is fake and photoshopped.
The same set of photos is being widely shared on Facebook with the false claim.
FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the claim that the photos published in The New York Times are from a private school - Mother Mary's School is false.
BOOM also visited the Sarvodaya Vidyalaya in Kakrola, Delhi and were able to independently establish that the photo of the classroom published by NYT is indeed from a government run school.
On checking the website of Mother Mary's School in Mayur Vihar, East Delhi, we found that the school is a girl's only school as it states on the site.
On observing the photo published by NYT from Sarvodaya Vidyalaya, both boys and girls are seated in the classroom, which would not be the case if it was a girls only school.
This indicates that the photos tweeted by Kapil Mishra are not of the same school.
Secondly, on comparing the uniform of the students seen in both the photos, we can see that they do not match as the colour of the uniform collar in the two photos are different.
We can also we can spot the logo of 'Sarvodaya' written on the uniform in the first photo published by the NYT which shows it is not from Mother Mary's School as being claimed.
Additionally, the NYT article attributed that the classroom photos were clicked by photojournalist Saumya Khandelwal and the caption clearly states that the photos are from Sarvodaya Vidyalaya. The photo caption reads, "A classroom at Sarvodaya Vidyalaya in New Delhi. The transformation of Delhi's education system has made public schools more successful and desirable."
NYT photo clicked at Sarvodaya Vidyalaya: Dilip Yadav, school management committee member
BOOM also visited Sarvodaya Vidyalaya in Kakrola's sector 16 and was able to independently confirm that it is the same school as featured in the NYT story.
Dilip Yadav, who represents AAP Matiala MLA Gulab Singh Yadav on the school management committee of Sarvodaya Vidyalaya confirmed to BOOM that the viral photos published by NYT were taken at the Kakrola Sarvodaya Vidyalaya. Yadav further identified the students present in the viral photo.
Yadav told BOOM that the photos published were clicked at the school when NYT journalists visited the school for their reporting assignment. "The uniform seen in the NYT photo is the uniform worn by students at Sarvodaya Vidyalaya and the students seen in the photo are from 9th A of the school," explained Yadav.
He also identified three of the students seen in the photo published by NYT. BOOM is not publishing their names to protect the identity of the minors.
Photo of Sarvodaya Vidyalaya from outside: Photo credit: Runjay Kumar
Additionally, Yadav, showed the school details as available on the education ministry's website where it is registered as a government and has an code number attached to it. Yadav also shared a print out of the same with us.
The document shows the school code as 1618009 which matches the details as seen on the website of the Delhi Education Ministry.