Union Budget 2022: School education budget increases by Rs 9,000 crore

NEW DELHI: In the Union Budget 2022, the second budget after the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, school education has been allocated Rs 63,449.37 crore, an increase of nearly Rs 9,000 crore over the current financial year. .

Union Budget 2022 Live Updates: Education budget increases by over Rs 11,000 crore

In 2020, the budget allocated to the Department of School Education and Literacy was Rs 54,873.66 crore, which represented a drastic cut of Rs 5,000 crore from the previous budget of 2019.

In Budget 2022, school education has seen an overall increase in general with more Rs 3,000 crore increase from the pre-pandemic times.

The country’s biggest school education scheme, the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan, has been allocated Rs 37,383.36, an increase of more than Rs 6,000 crores from Budget 2021. However, the allocated budget for SSA is less than 2019, when Rs 38,750.50 crore was allocated.

Meanwhile, the National Scheme for Incentive to Girls, a scholarship incentive scheme for girl children from Schedule Tribes and rural areas has been allocated no budget this year. The scheme had faced a cut of more than Rs 100 crore in Budget 2021.

Also, Padhna Likhna Abhiyaan, an adult education scheme focussed on basic literacy, has not been allocatted any funds for the next financial year. In Budget 2021, Rs 250 crore was allocated for the current financial year for Padhna Likhna Abhiyaan.

PM Poshan which replaces the mid-day meal scheme has been allocated Rs 10,233.75; in 2021-22, the mid-day meal scheme was allocated close to Rs 11,000 crore.

Funds for the Kendriya Vidyalayas and Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas have increased. Kendriya Vidyalayas got Rs 7,650 crore for the next financial year and Navodaya Vidyalayas got Rs 4,115 crores.

There is a considerable allocation for 'exemplar schools' with Rs 1,800 crore allocated for the next financial year. The education ministry has already take a USD 500 million loan from Asian Development Bank for funding Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan and creating 'exemplar schools".

The centre has also allocated Rs 550 crore for Strengthening Teaching-Learning and Results for States (STARS) project. The project, which includes a World Bank loan, focusses "on enhancing state capability” in six states -- Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Odisha

The budget estimates for the major schemes in the past few years are given below.

In her budget speech 2022, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman did acknowledge the learning losses left by the prolonged school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, all remedial measures she mentioned in the speech were related to online learning – generation of more e-content in regional languages and expansion of PM e-Vidya initiative from offering 12 educational channels to 200. No increase in outlay for digital education initiatives was discernible in the school education budget.