Education the biggest gainer in Delhi budget: new schemes, courses announced, details here

The Delhi government has allocated ₹15,600 crore, 26% of the total budget, for the eduction sector in its budget for 2019-20 fiscal presented in the assembly on Tuesday. This is the highest among all sectors.

Delhi education minister Manish Sisodia, who also holds the finance ministry, presented the budget proposal for the year 2019-20. “Education was, is and will always be our top priority. Keeping people illiterate has been a strategy of political parties as of now. But, our government wants to change the face of politics by brining education in the mainstream,” Sisodia said.

The government has presented a total budget of ₹60,000 crore for the year 2019-20, 26% of which will be spent on education.

The government has allocated ₹42 crore to be given as the seed money to students studying in class 11 and 12 in the state-run schools and those studying in its colleges and universities under the upcoming “Entrepreneurship Curriculum”. The amount will be given to students to start developing their “business plans”. The curriculum will be taught to students studying in classes 9 to 12 in Delhi government schools.

The government will also introduce a course “MBA in family business” at the Delhi Technical University (DTU) for students coming from business background. “The curriculum will help them take forward their family businesses. We are aiming to produce more job creators than job seekers in Delhi’s schools and colleges,” Sisodia said.

The government has announced to established a new university in “applied sciences” that will offer skill based courses at different levels--- diploma, certificate, graduate and post graduate, M Phil and PhD. The national capital will also get another university for teachers’ training. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government has been working on teachers’ training ever since it has come into power in 2015.

From academic session 2019-20, the government schools will also be give ₹5 to 7 lakh to strength its School Management Committees (SMCs). “The SMCs will also be given ₹1 to 1.5 lakh additional amount to help teachers who want to take new initiatives to make learning better at their respective schools,” Sisodia said.

The education minister has also announced to give tablets to the students studying in class 11 and 12 in its schools of excellences and Pratibha Vikas Vidhyalaya and allocated ₹9 crore for the purpose. Also, the government school students scoring 80% and above in class 10 board examination will be given a tablet as a reward under a “Pratibha fellowship”.

Under the chief minister scholarship scheme, the government has also announced to provide an annual scholarship of ₹2,500 to government school students who scored 80% and above in classes 7 to 12. “We want to encourage talented students studying in government schools. We are not going to set any minimum limit for income of parents required to avail this scheme,” Sisodia said. The government has also increased the scholarships given to SC, ST and minority category students studying in its schools.

Around 40,000 students will be trained in spoken English in government schools in the next academic session, Sisodia said. Last year, the government had introduced this programme for students studying in class 11 in its over 1,100 schools.