(a) the reasons for slashing the budget allocation for Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan for 2021-22;
(b) the reasons for slashing budget for National Scheme for Incentive to Girls for Secondary Education; and
(c) whether the Government has undertaken any assessment/survey/study to determine that less funds were required for the above-mentioned schemes?
MINISTER OF EDUCATION
(SHRI RAMESH POKHRIYAL ‘NISHANK’)
(a) to (c): The Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Samagra Shiksha has been launched as an Integrated Scheme for School Education by subsuming the erstwhile Centrally Sponsored Schemes of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and Teacher Education (TE) from 2018-19. It is an overarching programme for the school education sector extending from pre-school to class XII and aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education at all levels of school education.
Under Samagra Shiksha, the annual plans are prepared by the States and UTs based on their requirements and priority and this is reflected in their respective Annual Work Plan and Budget (AWP&B) Proposals. These plans are then appraised and approved/estimated by the Project Approval Board (PAB) in the Department of School Education & Literacy in consultation with the States and UTs as per the programmatic and financial norms of the scheme, availability of funds and physical and financial progress of the State for the interventions approved earlier. Further, the funds are released on the basis of submission of Audited Accounts, Utilization Certificate, physical and financial progress and other documents as prescribed under the Financial Management & Procurement (FMP) Manual of Samagra Shiksha.
For the Samagra Shiksha, the RE 2020-21 is Rs. 27957.32 crore and the BE 2021-22 is Rs. 31050.15 crore.
The budget of 2018-19 was used for clearing the backlog of 2017-18 of the National Scheme for Incentive to Girls for Secondary Education.
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