LUCKNOW, Feb. 18 -- Sandeep Singh, basic education minister, told the Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly on Tuesday that government schools under the basic education department follow the same National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) syllabus as private schools, pushing back against opposition questions on English-medium education on the lines of Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) boards in the state. "The same syllabus taught in private schools under NCERT is being taught in basic education department schools," Singh said during Question Hour. The minister pointed to infrastructure upgrades, citing CM Composite Schools as an example. Each such school is built for Rs 25 crore, with two planned per district. On English, Singh said the National Education Policy (NEP) treats English as a subject, not a medium of instruction, and all schools teach it as such. Secondary education minister Gulab Devi, responding to a question on science education, said all but three of the state's 974 government colleges have science teacher positions and that science education is being provided. Her reply came after Samajwadi Party (SP) MLA Ragini Singh claimed many government colleges lacked science teachers. In a separate exchange, Apna Dal (Kamerawadi) MLA Pallavi Patel from Sirathu raised the issue of medical leave for university professors, asking why they were denied benefits available to government college teachers. Higher education minister Yogendra Upadhaya explained that state college teachers are government employees entitled to service benefits under state rules, while university professors are governed by regulations framed under the State Universities Act, 1973, with each university maintaining its own statutes. Medical leave for university professors is generally governed by University Grants Commission (UGC) notifications and respective university statutes, he said....