New Delhi: The Modi government has allocated over Rs 5,700 crore to the school education sector to “mitigate the effects of Covid-19”, the Ministry of Education told Parliament Monday.
While the major chunk has been allocated for composite school grants — meant for safe school operations, sanitisation, essentials like alcohol sanitisers, cleaning materials and thermal screening facilities — the rest is meant for improving online education.
According to the written reply by the ministry, a total of Rs 5,784.05 crore has been allocated under various heads to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic in schools.
The money will be spent on promoting online education, teacher training and awareness campaigns to educate students and parents about the risks of Covid, the ministry’s reply stated.
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The break-up
Replying to a question in Parliament on “whether sufficient budgetary provision has been made in the view of Covid-19 in the current financial year”, the ministry said: “To mitigate the effect of Covid-19, Department of School Education and Literacy have allocated Rs 818.17 crore to promote online learning through digital initiatives and Rs 267.86 crore for online teacher training to ensure continuous professional development of teachers.”
The ministry has also allocated Rs 304.05 crore for the training of members of School Management Committees/School Management and Development Committees to make them aware of the Covid-19 situation, and to create awareness among students and parents.
Apart from this, Rs 153.68 crore has been allocated for media and community mobilisation, Rs 51.03 crore for safety and security at schools in accordance with the Covid-19 guidelines, and Rs 417.44 crore for orientation of teachers on safety and security.
A major chunk of the budget — Rs 3,771.82 crore — has been allocated under composite school grants, which include safe school operations and sanitisation.
In this year’s budget, the government had allocated a total of Rs 59,845 crore for the Department of School Education for the year 2020-21.
Covid challenges
With the Covid-19 pandemic, the education sector in the country, especially school education, has been faced with many challenges as institutes are closed and students are completely dependent on online classes and other digital modes of instruction.
The central government has taken several steps in order to help them deal with the situation, including launching the PM e-VIDYA programme, which aims to bring educational content on TV.
Also read: Online classes now a culture in Covid times, says PM, hails New Education Policy