Budget 2022: How Samagra Shiksha Scheme is key for school reopenings

The budget for Samagra Shiksha has grown by 20% but is still lower than projected budgets of the education ministry

As schools--closed for a large part of the last two years because of the Covid-19 pandemic--are set to re-open, the Union government has increased the budget for a key education programme, Samagra Shiksha, to Rs 37,383 crore in the 2022-23 budget, up by 20% from Rs 31,050 crore in 2021-22. Money well spent as part of this programme will be key to help children get back to school, train teachers and support them, as most other sources of the states' funds are spent on salaries and administrative expenses, finds our analysis. 

The overall school education budget increased by 15.6% in