HRD ministry approves Rs 59 lakh budget for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan
The ministry of human resources and development has approved around Rs 59.6 lakh annual budget of Sarva Siksha Abhyan (SSA) for the year 2015-16.
The ministry of human resources and development has approved around Rs 59.6 lakh annual budget of Sarva Siksha Abhyan (SSA) for the year 2015-16.
The budget was approved at the 217th meeting of Project Approval Board (PAB) held on February 12. Keeping the welfare of out of schools kids in mind, the ministry has approved Rs 23.1 lakh for special training for mainstreaming these kids.
According to the PAB report, there are 4,319 out of school children, including 2,038 girls. It was pointed out by the PAB that the funds meant for out of school children were not being spent properly by the UT education department. The grant was erratic and not given for months on end. Hence the UT was advised to regularise the fund flow mechanism.
The PAB approved special training for out of school children at an outlay of Rs 23.1 lakh, subject to the condition that these children would directly be enrolled in neighbourhood schools and would be mainstreamed immediately after completion of the special training.
The PAB also approved Rs 20.8 lakh for government and government-aided schools only, girls of Hindi and English medium schools and boys of English medium schools.
Though the UT had asked for funds for workbooks, however, the same were not found feasible by the PAB. It also approved braille books and large print books for visually impaired.
An amount of Rs 13.4 lakh was approved for inclusive education for 4,480 children with special needs
The PAB also approved Rs 7.9 lakh for training of teachers and head teachers. Rs 15.5 lakh has been approved for academic support through Block Resource Centres (BRCs)/Urban Resource Centres (URCs). Two URCs have been sanctioned for the UT, in which one URC has been made functional by putting up six resource persons under quality and one resource persons under inclusive education.
The PAB has also approved Rs 12.3 lakh for annual school grants, including Rs 5.3 lakh for primary schools and Rs 7 lakh for upper primary schools. A maintenance grant for 219 schools was approved for Rs 16.4 lakh. Since all the upper primary schools in the UT have Computer Assisted Learning (CAL) facility, the state was advised to use the existing facilities to promote mathematics and science learning in the upper primary classes by using CDs and other available software material.
The PAB also suggested that teachers should be trained accordingly for the use of the material. For all this, the PAB approved a sum of Rs 10 lakh.
The PAB also approved Rs 10 lakh under Learning Enhancement Programme and Rs 3 lakh under research study on Effectiveness of Resource Support.
With an aim to empower female students, the PAB approved Rs 23.8 lakh under Innovation for Girls' Education for Self-Defence Training and awareness activities. The PAB approved an outlay of Rs 3 lakh for SMC Training and Project Management Funds, including Rs 1 lakh for filling up posts and Rs 2 lakh for other expenses.
An amount of Rs 16 lakh as spill over for BaLA ((Building as Learning Aid) programme was proposed by the UT and the same was approved as spill over.