The Union ministry of education had under the Samagra Shiksha programme sanctioned a budget of ₹96.82 crore for Chandigarh for the financial year 2021-2022.
This was decided during a project approval board (PAB) meeting held in June this year, the minutes for which were released recently, to consider the annual work plan and budget of the programme.
It was chaired by the secretary of school education and literacy and attended by various officials of the UT education department.
Samagra Shiksha is an overarching programme of the Union ministry for the school education sector, extending from pre-school to Class 12. It aims to boost equal opportunities for schooling and equitable learning outcomes and includes the three schemes of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and Teacher Education (TE).
Under the scheme, total budget of ₹9,682.73 lakh had been set aside for Chandigarh this year, of which ₹8,798.53 lakh is for elementary education, ₹860.99 lakhs for secondary and ₹23.21 lakh for teacher education.
From the total funds, ₹9,335.12 lakh are fresh recurring, which includes funds for programme management; ₹269.40 lakh are fresh non-recurring funds and ₹78.21 lakh are spillover funds from last year. Last year, the budget was set at ₹8,974.23 lakh, a little less than this year.
At the meeting, the UT had been asked to prioritise allocating the funds towards Right To Education (RTE) entitlements; foundational literacy and numeracy; quality initiatives like information and communication technologies; school grants including library and sports grants; gender, equity and inclusive education; and completion of pending civil works and spillover.
{{/usCountry}}At the meeting, the UT had been asked to prioritise allocating the funds towards Right To Education (RTE) entitlements; foundational literacy and numeracy; quality initiatives like information and communication technologies; school grants including library and sports grants; gender, equity and inclusive education; and completion of pending civil works and spillover.
{{/usCountry}}The Centre had also highlighted that there are likely to be savings under this scheme and separate PAB meetings may be considered in October or November depending on fund utilisation.
64 projects pending
Addressing the pending works, the report notes that 267 works were approved, out of which the UT administration has completed 203. As many as 61 pending works are currently in progress, including the construction of two primary schools and 45 additional classrooms at the elementary level upto 2017-2018 and one new school building, two additional classrooms, four bathrooms each for girls and boys and three works for drinking water at the secondary level which were approved in 2010-2011.
The department is yet to start with three pending works including two block resource centres and one for drinking water. UT has been asked to complete these pending works on priority.