A big push for creating and enhancing infrastructure in school and medical education is the key focus area of the first budget of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Punjab, which was presented by finance minister Harpal Cheema on Monday.
While the budgetary outlay has been enhanced by 16.27% for school and higher education, a 47.84% increase in technical education outlay and a whopping 56.6% hike in budget provisions for medical education have also been proposed for the year 2022-23.
Sharing Dr BR Ambedkar’s quote, “Education is the milk of a lioness; he who drinks it will roar,” Cheema said a change in approach is being adopted, whereby emphasis will not just remain restricted to improving the existing infrastructure and introduction of state-of-the-art school buildings.
The finance minister announced that the government proposes to post “estate managers” for a cluster of schools, so that while the principals remain focused on academics, basic and necessary repairs may get immediate attention. For this, a budget of ₹123 crore has been allocated in the current fiscal.
The government also proposed to impart training and build capacity of teachers/school heads/principals to enhance the qualitative aspect of teaching and ensure better child centric pedagogical practices by spending ₹30 crore. ₹100 crore have been kept for installation of rooftop solar panel systems in government schools, while a budgetary allocation of ₹424 crore has been made for creating infrastructure like boundary walls.
{{/usCountry}}The government also proposed to impart training and build capacity of teachers/school heads/principals to enhance the qualitative aspect of teaching and ensure better child centric pedagogical practices by spending ₹30 crore. ₹100 crore have been kept for installation of rooftop solar panel systems in government schools, while a budgetary allocation of ₹424 crore has been made for creating infrastructure like boundary walls.
{{/usCountry}}Schools of Eminence
It was also announced to convert 100 existing schools as “Schools of Eminence” by spending ₹200 crore this financial year. These schools would be composite schools from pre-primary to Class 12 and would be equipped with superlative infrastructure like digital classrooms, fully equipped labs, vocational training facilities and trained faculty. Besides, it was announced to establish modern digital classrooms in 500 government schools in the first phase, for which ₹40 crore were allocated.
It was also announced to start Punjab Young Entrepreneur Programme, wherein Class 11 students can propose their original business ideas to get the government support in the form of ₹2,000 seed money. ₹50 crore were allocated for this scheme.
Meanwhile, ₹67 crore have been kept for pre-matric scholarship scheme for 1 lakh OBC students, and ₹79 crore have been allocated for 2.4 lakh SC students.
General students’ scholarship
A new scheme, “CM Scholarship to General Category Students”, for giving concessions in university fee was also announced to encourage the students belonging to poor families, especially of general category, studying in government colleges to study further. The concession will be based on the marks obtained by the student. ₹30 crore were allocated for it.
₹30 crore will also be spent for providing infrastructure facilities in libraries of government colleges in 9 districts: Tarn Taran, Barnala, Ludhiana, Fazilka, Malerkotla, Moga, Pathankot, Sri Muktsar Sahib and Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar.
For employability of students, ₹641 crore would be spent with the main focus on “strengthening, modernisation and expansion” of the existing systems.
16 new medical colleges
The finance minister said government proposes to set up 16 new medical colleges, taking the total to 25, in the state over the next five years. This year, ₹1,033 crore have been kept for medical education, an increase of 56.6% over the 2021-22 allocation.
The focus will be on upgradation of existing state government medical colleges and also to increase MBBS seats in these colleges.
However, in the current budget, Cheema mentioned only Sant Baba Attar Singh State Institute of Medical Sciences, being set up in Sangrur, for which ₹50 crore were allocated. A state-of-the-art Punjab Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences has also been planned in Mohali.