Centre earmarks ₹906 cr for Punjab under Samagra Shiksha
OF THE TOTAL AMOUNT, ₹544 CR WILL BE PROVIDED BY THE CENTRE AS ITS SHARE AND THE REMAINING ₹362 CR BY THE STATE GOVT
CHANDIGARH: The Centre has earmarked an outlay of Rs 906 crore for Punjab for the financial year 2021-22 under the flagship Samagra Shiksha scheme.
The tentative fund allocation has been conveyed by the Union ministry of education to the state government under the centrally sponsored integrated scheme for school education.
Of this, the Rs 544 crore will be provided by the Centre as its share and the remaining Rs 362 crore by the state government.
The programme aimed at ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education is jointly funded by the Centre and the state on 60:40 sharing basis.
A school education department official said the funds earmarked by the central ministry for the current financial year are tentative estimates.
“The department will submit its annual work plan and budget to the Union ministry of education for approval with details of activities and civil works to be undertaken this year. The final budget will be approved by the ministry’s project approval board on the basis of approvals granted for specific activities. Unspent balance of previous fiscal (2020-21) will also be carried forward,” said the official who is in the know of the matter.
The department, which is giving final touches to the annual work plan and budget 2021-22, will submit it to the ministry in the next few days.
The project approval board meeting was originally scheduled for April 16 and has been deferred.
The new date is still to be decided.
Of the estimated allocation of Rs 906 crore, Rs 615.42 crore, or say 68%, are proposed to be earmarked for elementary education and Rs 276.20 crore for secondary education.
A sum of Rs 14.26 crore has been proposed for teacher education, including State Council for Education Research and Training (SCERT) and District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETS).
The ministry has informed the state government that the overall plan proposal should not exceed 125% of the estimated plan outlay.
However, the school education department is hopeful of getting a higher allocation than the estimates conveyed by the central ministry due to an increase in student enrolment in government schools.
The special enrolment drive, including a door-to-door campaign by primary and pre-primary teachers amid a surge in Covid-19 cases in the state, has seen students shift to government schools from private ones during the past one year as the latter have been insisting on tuition feeds whereas everything, from education to textbooks and uniform, are free in the state-run schools.
Thrust areas
The thrust areas for the current year include early childhood development, care and education, digital initiatives, foundation literacy and numeracy, and universalisation of secondary and senior secondary education and funds will be allocated for activities accordingly.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has presented unprecedented challenges for the education sector as the schools could not open for most part of this academic year and large migrations took place all over the country,” reads a letter sent by the department of school education and literacy, Union ministry of education, to the state government last month, laying emphasis on the importance of digital initiatives in these challenging times.