To meet its ambitious plan of making Delhi an educational hub, the AAP government today doubled the plan expenditure for education and increased the budget for the sector to Rs 9,836 crore.
Presenting the Delhi budget, Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister Manish Sisodia said, "Our government is proposing a historical initiative for the bright future of Delhi. I propose a total expenditure of Rs 9,836 crore for the education sector in the financial year 2015-16."
"Rs 4,570 crore of this (amount) is plan expenditure. This is 106 per cent more than the last financial year's plan expenditure of Rs 2,219 crore, he said.
"We have made substantial progress in moving towards our vision to make Delhi a world-class city by making it an educational hub and skill development centre," Sisodia, who also holds the finance portfolio, said in his budget speech.
"We have comprehensive plans for upgrading school and higher education. They have two objectives -- firstly, making Delhi hundred percent literate in next few years and secondly, to make education relevant for students imparting values and skills among them during twenty years of education," he said.
The government is also working at different levels to improve the quality of education in all government schools in Delhi, Sisodia said.
Stating that the agenda of the government is to provide modern facilities and infrastructure in all 1,011 government schools, he said, "In the current financial year, 50 schools are planned to be developed as model schools."
Noting that the student-teacher ratio at schools was a matter of grave concern, the Deputy CM said the government has planned to improve this ratio with recruitment of 20,000 regular teachers by the end of this year.
He said the government has also initiated work for setting up of 236 new schools in the current financial year. "83 new buildings are getting constructed," he added.
Construction work is in full swing for 20 school buildings, working plans have been prepared for 25 schools and land has been identified for 38 schools, he said.
"In the newly-constructed 83 buildings, 166 schools can be started in two shifts. In addition, 70 schools have been identified which are presently operating in single shift, but we propose to start the second shift in these schools to cater to the large number of students," Sisodia said.
Reiterating his government's commitment to provide facilities to ensure dignity to government school teachers, Sisodia said, "We are also taking steps to ensure accountability at school-level. We propose to install CCTV cameras in all the classrooms of government schools."
"To encourage sports activities in schools, we have launched the 'pay and play scheme', under which the common man can avail facilities in government sports complexes and stadiums on nominal user charges," he said.
Though Sisodia lauded the "excellent" work done by many private schools, he said in view of complaints relating to their admission and fees, "the government was proposing amendments in Delhi School Education Act and Rules, 1973."
A proposal to make the process of admission and fee determination transparent will be brought before this House, he said.
