Mumbai: The allocation for the education sector in the state’s interim budget 2024-25 has increased from last year’s Rs 87,314 crore to Rs 95,875 crore, a rise of 9.8 per cent. However, there has been no increase in the share of education in the overall expenditure, which continues to be around 16 per cent.
While there was little in terms of new educational programmes and schemes announced in the election-year budget, presented by Finance Minister Ajit Pawar on Tuesday, both the school and higher education departments have seen an upward revision in their allocations. However, much of this hike has gone towards regular expenses, especially payment of salaries to school and college teachers and staffers, while spending on some of the flagship education schemes has been brought down.
A week after exempting private schools located in the vicinity of government schools from having to admit socio-economically weaker section students on 25 per cent of their seats, the state has cut down the budget for reimbursing schools for these admissions from Rs200 crore provided in the last budget to Rs 173 crore. The schools have complained that the state owes them Rs 2,400 crore.
The state’s share in two centrally sponsored schemes, midday meals (PM POSHAN) and Samagra Shiksha, has also been slashed by Rs50 crore and Rs25 crore, respectively, even though the state recently introduced eggs in school meals. On the other hand, the budget has an outlay of Rs81 crore for PM SHRI by the state to upgrade schools on the lines of the New Education Policy (NEP).
In his budget speech, Pawar announced several new projects to provide skill training to youths. These include the establishment of an ‘International Skill Development Centre’ and ‘Sant Gadgebaba Swachh Bharat Skill Prabodhini’ in every revenue division and a ‘Skill Development Training Centre’ at Koradi, Nagpur. The minister also said that 2,000 new ‘Pramod Mahajan Skill Development Centres’ will be set up in the state and ‘Skill Development Centres’ will be started in 1,000 colleges. As many as 500 youths from each district will be imparted training in tourism and hospitality sectors, he said.
However, there was no allocation made for most of these schemes in the budget 2024-25 document. In fact, the planned spending the state's Skills, Employment, Entrepreneurship And Innovation Department has only increased by Rs65 crore, or 2 per cent compared to 2023-24. The outlay the Pramod Mahajan Skill and Entrepreneurship Development Mission did see an increase of Rs 235 crore to Rs 250 crore.
Following protests by research scholars from marginalised communities to increase the number of fellowships awarded to them, the government said that a comprehensive policy has been laid down to bring uniformity in scholarships, fellowships, training, skill development and other programmes and schemes for various marginalised groups. The finance minister had earlier had faced heat for questioning the utility of providing fellowships to pursue doctorates.
The state has also announced increasing the subsidy of Dr Zakir Hussain Madrasa Modernization Scheme from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 10 lakh, to bring the minority students into the mainstream of education.
