Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Delhi govt to put aside Rs.1222 crore for education

New Delhi: The Delhi government might make a provision of around Rs.1200 crore for education in the budget for the financial year 2011-12. The money that will be allocated for education this year is expected to be higher than that of the previous years by 15%-20%.

The Delhi state government is setting aside the amount for education as it needs to implement the Right To Education (RTE) on all private as well as government schools and hence needs enough money for the purpose.

Apart from allocating the high amount for education, the government has also decided to recruit 10,000 trained school teachers in the next few months.

A senior Delhi government official said that the government needed to hire a large number of teachers to ensure that the RTE is implemented at all government schools in its true spirit apart from reimbursing the money to private schools that will be spent on free education for children from economically weaker sections (EWS).

While presenting the budget in the Delhi Assembly on March 22, sources have said that Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit may also announce the hiring of school teachers and emphasize upon the education sector.

Earlier, Rs.1032 crore had been allocated for education by the government for the year 2009-2010 and Rs.1122 crore for the year 2010-2011. Senior government officials have said that that the budget allocation for the current year may be around Rs.1222 crore.

As the government had made it mandatory for schools to reserve 25% of its seats for students from economically weaker sections, the government will be providing free education to around 50,000 students.

An official from the education department said that the implementation of the RTE would include compensating the schools for the free education provided to students from economically weaker sections as well as recruiting 10,000 teachers.

This would mean that the government will have to work towards upgrading the infrastructure of schools.

Private schools that have been built on private land will also be reimbursed the money spent on education for students from economically weaker sections.

Delhi will be the first state to implement the Act. Officials have alleged that the implementation of the act will place a huge financial burden upon the state. The central and the state governments will be sharing the funds in the ratio of 55:45.

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