Delhi govt announces Rs.1301 crore for education in budget

New Delhi: In the budget by the Delhi government that was announced on
Tuesday for the financial year 2011-2012, the government has proposed
an outlay of Rs.1301 crore for the education sector in the city. This
amounts to about 9% of the total budget for the state.

The amount that has been allotted to education in the budget will be
utilized for improving infrastructure in schools, recruiting more
teachers for the successful implementation of the Right To Education
(RTE) and providing more scholarships to students.

The education department of the Delhi government has decided to
recruit 14,000 teaching staff for the implementation of the RTE. This
teaching staff would include school principals, postgraduate teachers,
trained graduate teachers, lab assistants, assistant teachers,
computer science teachers and administrative staff.

The plans for the education sector that the government has also
include building 30 new schools in the next fiscal budget of Rs.270
crore. The projects for the construction of 15 new school building
that will cost around Rs.191 crore have already been approved. Project
reports for the construction of the remaining 15 schools are still
being prepared.

The amount of money that will remain will be spent on the
establishment of new computer labs. The creation of additional
infrastructural facilities in schools including 2678 classrooms, 1000
toilets and 470 water modules at a cost of Rs.1178 crore over the next
three years have also been approved by the government.

The government has also announced a host of subsidies and scholarships
that would help in retaining students and also motivate meritorious
students to pursue higher education. The uniform subsidy that is
available to students from classes 6 to 12 in government and
government aided schools has been raised from Rs.700 to Rs.900 per
annum from the current academic session of 2011-2012.

The government has also revised the Lal Bahadur Shastri Scholarship
that is awarded to students of classes 7 to 12 who secure 80% and
above marks and whose parental income is less than Rs.1 lakh per
annum.

Former Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) chairman Ashok
Ganguly has said that even though the government has made a high
allocation for education in the current budget, it has failed to
address the issue of quality teaching.

He said that there was a need for strong teacher training programmes
in the state to ensure that there is quality education in classrooms.
"The budget that has been announced by the government concentrates
only on the infrastructural development of education and not on
quality," he said.