Just a month before the financial year of 2022-23 comes to a close, in February, the Centre had released just a little over 50% of the total allocated funds for the Samagra Shiksha scheme run by the Ministry of Education (MoE).
Samagra Shiksha, the Central government’s school education programme, was launched in April 2018 and acts as the primary vehicle for the implementation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009.
The latest data available with the MoE reveals that, of the allocated ₹37,383 crore for FY2022-23, up to ₹19,709 crore (52%) has been released by the Centre to the States till February 9 this year.
A senior official with MoE told The Hindu that the Ministry was working hard at plugging the gap at the fag end of the financial year, and would release the majority amount of up to 85% to 90% to some States in March.
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, household incomes took a massive hit, which led to increase in enrolment at the elementary levels in government and aided schools by over 87 lakh students, and decrease in enrolment at private schools of up to 95 lakh students.
Yet, utilisation capacities of States towards strengthening public schools remains low. The quantum of funds released by the Centre depends upon the utilisation capacities of the States. Every year, annual budgets for Samagra Shiksha are approved by the Project Approval Board (PAB) under the Ministry of Education, based on a proposed annual work plan, and budgets submitted by individual State governments.
These include plans for access and retention of students, Right to Education (RTE) entitlements, quality interventions, teacher education and their financial support, maintaining gender parity, vocational education, sports, monitoring and programme management. All of these components need to be juggled and prioritised with a set budgetary allocation by States.
The COVID-19 pandemic had led to substantial learning losses in school-going children, which saw States allotting more share of the budget for ‘Quality Interventions’ under the scheme. These include learning assessments at national and State levels, and learning enhancement programmes. This has led to the share of the budget towards financial support for teachers dipping from 33% in FY2020-21 to 27% in FY2022-23, according to Samagra Shiksha PAB minutes.
Apart from this, another component that is hit due to lower budget spends is the Information Communication and Technology component of schools. “Computers and Internet availability in schools remains low at 33% in government and aided schools. Only 26% government and aided schools reported having internet in FY2021-22. In Assam and Telengana only 10% schools have internet while in Odisha and Bihar not more than 9% and 6% schools have internet, respectively,” a research report by Centre for Policy and Analysis points out.
An analysis carried out by Centre for Policy Research (CPR) also revealed that the expenditure under the scheme has been consistently low. For instance, in FY2022-23, till October 2022, only 22% of the total approved budget was spent, including State and Central shares, much lesser than the released amount.
The scheme is supposed to run from FY2021-22 to FY2025-26 with a financial outlay of ₹2,94,283 crore, of which Central share has been pencilled out to be ₹1,85,398 crore, but allocations remain low. For the first three years, only 54% of the total approved Government of India share has been allocated.
Haryana and Uttar Pradesh were unable to utilise previous funds, and received the lowest share at 27% and 36%, respectively, of the approved Central share in FY2022-23 until November 2022. Maharashtra had not received any funds at all. The State had a lowest utilisation rate at 37% in FY2021-22. Its performance had slipped from FY2020-21, when it had utilised 56% of the funds for the full financial year. Similarly, U.P. had underperformed too, with utilisation levels dipping from 69% in FY2020-21 to 50% in FY2021-22, the CPR analysis states.
Published - March 30, 2023 06:33 am IST
