HRD ministry demands retention of the funds allocated for school education and literacy

06 Feb 2013 Evaluate

Disappointed over the seven percent cut in HRD Ministry's revised budget for this fiscal, Human Resource Department minister M M Pallam Raju has written a letter to Finance Minister P Chidambaram, terming the step as 'unjustified'.

In view of economic slowdown, the finance ministry, in last month, imposed cut of about seven percent in the Rs 45,000 crore school education and literacy budget to control expenditure. HRD minister, Raju especially highlighted the Rs 209 crore slash in funds allocated for the centrally-sponsored scheme of teacher education for the 2012-13 fiscal.  Moreover, budget for higher education sector has also been reduced by about 13 per cent, which had got Rs 15,458 crore, he added.

Demanding retention of the funds allocated for this scheme, he said that funds under this programme have been reduced from Rs 500 crore to Rs 292 crore. 'This appears unjustified as the revised scheme of teacher education was approved by the cabinet committee on economic affairs in March 2012 and the revised guidelines and annual work format prepared after a nationwide consultation were circulated to all states'.

The minister mentioned that the reduction of the budget at revised estimate stage comes at a time when special effort is being made to revamp the teacher education system, which is critical to improve the quality of education. Further he said that the cut would hamper delivery of the scheme as the ministry would require more than the budget earmarked under it.

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