The budget allotted by the central government under the head of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), which is the vehicle for implementing RTE, has been fluctuating over the last few years.
An analysis of the education budget in relation to various schemes shows government's "lack of commitment" towards the Right to Education (RTE) Act in the country, over the years, states a report released on Thursday.
The budget allotted by the central government under the head of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), which is the vehicle for implementing RTE, has been fluctuating over the last few years.
As per an analysis by the Right to Education forum, SSA, which is the government's flagship scheme for implementation of RTE, has received Rs 23,500 crore for 2017-18, which is an hike of Rs 1,000 crore from last year's allocation. According to the RTE report, "The increase is not sufficient to address the gaps in resource requirement in financing RTE."
The central share of SSA is approved by Human Resource Development Ministry (MHRD) based on the annual work plan and budgets prepared by the districts and submitted to the Ministry by the States. In 2017-18, the budgetary allocation for SSA is Rs 23,500 which is only 42.7 per cent of MHRD's approved amount of Rs 55,000 crore. Since the financial year 2013-14, the proportion of budgetary allocation from the Centre for SSA to the approved amount of MHRD for SSA is gradually declining and for the 2017-18 budget, it stood only at only 42. 7 per cent. "This clearly indicates that the Ministry of Finance has not been able to fulfill the commitments made by MHRD for implementing RTE," states the report.
Over the years, after the implementation of the RTE Act, the learning level outcomes of schoolchildren had deteriorated, as per the ASER 2016 report. The government has, however, taken a step towards improving the learning outcomes by measuring the outcomes each year and making sure that children are learning what they need to as per their age.
HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar recently said, "We have defined learning outcomes for schoolchildren according to their age. These outcomes will be shared with the parents also and posted on the walls of schools."
Budget over the years SSA
2013-14 2,4802 cr
2014-15 2,4097 cr
2015-16 2,1661 cr
2016-17 22,500 cr
2017-18 23,500 cr
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