Government releases Rs 7622 crore to states and UTs under the Samagra Shiksha scheme for free textbooks and uniforms, etc
The Ministry of Education (MoE) has released Rs 7622 crore to states and UTs under the Samagra Shiksha scheme for free textbooks, uniforms, support for teachers salary and in-service training, running of KGBVs, teaching, vocational education, ICT and digital initiatives. Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ took to Twitter to announce the same.
The scheme aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education from pre-school to senior secondary in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) for education.
“An amount of INR 7622 crore has been released so far in 2021-22 to states and UTs under the Samagra Shiksha scheme for continuity of various initiatives such as free textbooks and uniforms, running of KGBVs, teaching, vocational education, ICT and digital initiatives,” the education minister tweeted. (sic)
The Samagra Shiksha program consist of three schemes – Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and Teacher Education (TE). Under the scheme, PAB meetings are be conducted and annual plans of states are approved through the PRABANDH system, launched last year. The scheme also enables states to upload plans and allows everyone to view it from remote locations.
The major objectives of the scheme includes provision of quality education, bridging social and gender gaps in school education, ensuring equity and inclusion at all levels of school education, ensuring minimum standards in schooling provisions, promoting, vocationalisation of education, supporting states in implementation of Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, and strengthening and up-gradation of SCERTs/State Institutes of Education and DIET as a nodal agencies for teacher training.
The scheme proposes to give flexibility to the states to plan and prioritise their interventions within the scheme norms. Funds are proposed to be allocated on an objective criteria based on enrollment of students, learning outcomes and various other performance indicators.
