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India's ambitious plan of seeing every child in school was short-changed in the Budget again.
While the finance minister set aside Rs 25,555 crore for implementation of the Right to Education (RTE) Act, up by 21.7% from last year's Rs 21,000 crore, the allotment failed to enthuse experts. Describing the move as "disappointing", Vinod Raina-an architect of the RTE Act-said: "This year, there is once again a shortfall in funding a fundamental right. It shows how serious the government really is about the RTE (Act)."
March 2013 is the deadline for implementation of the first phase of the Act. "There is nothing in the Budget that says we are trying to rise to that," said Madhav Chavan, founder of Pratham, an NGO. The increase in funds for elementary education from Rs 29,000 crore to Rs 34,000 crore is thanks to an almost similar augmentation of the education cess, which is up from Rs 18,000 crore to Rs 21,670 crore.
There is, though, a silver lining for those pursuing higher education. A credit guarantee fund has been introduced for better access to education loans. According to bankers, a portion of their interest earnings from education loans will go to the fund. If there is any default, they can recover their losses from the fund. SBI had reduced interest rates on education loans by one percentage point in February. Pratip Chaudhuri, chairman of SBI, had said banks had proposed such a fund that would encourage them to give education loans.
Low-profile agriculture universities and rural development schools benefited from some financial attention they got this year after premier institutions such as the IITs and IISc were bolstered by large one-time grant in previous Budgets.
Mukherjee gave Rs 25 crore to Institute of Rural Management, Anand; Rs 50 crore each for a water quality centre with focus on arsenic contamination in Kolkata; University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad; Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hissar; and Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology. Besides, Rs 100 crore has been allocated to Kerala Agricultural University and Acharya N G Ranga Agricultural University, Hyderabad; Rs 15 crore to National Council for Applied Economic Research and Rs 10 crore each to Rajiv Gandhi University, Department of Economics, Itanagar, and Siddharth Vihar Trust, Gulbarga, for a Pali research centre.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/budget-2012/union-budget/Right-to-education-fails-to-get-pass-marks-again/articleshow/12300266.cms
While the finance minister set aside Rs 25,555 crore for implementation of the Right to Education (RTE) Act, up by 21.7% from last year's Rs 21,000 crore, the allotment failed to enthuse experts. Describing the move as "disappointing", Vinod Raina-an architect of the RTE Act-said: "This year, there is once again a shortfall in funding a fundamental right. It shows how serious the government really is about the RTE (Act)."
March 2013 is the deadline for implementation of the first phase of the Act. "There is nothing in the Budget that says we are trying to rise to that," said Madhav Chavan, founder of Pratham, an NGO. The increase in funds for elementary education from Rs 29,000 crore to Rs 34,000 crore is thanks to an almost similar augmentation of the education cess, which is up from Rs 18,000 crore to Rs 21,670 crore.
There is, though, a silver lining for those pursuing higher education. A credit guarantee fund has been introduced for better access to education loans. According to bankers, a portion of their interest earnings from education loans will go to the fund. If there is any default, they can recover their losses from the fund. SBI had reduced interest rates on education loans by one percentage point in February. Pratip Chaudhuri, chairman of SBI, had said banks had proposed such a fund that would encourage them to give education loans.
Low-profile agriculture universities and rural development schools benefited from some financial attention they got this year after premier institutions such as the IITs and IISc were bolstered by large one-time grant in previous Budgets.
Mukherjee gave Rs 25 crore to Institute of Rural Management, Anand; Rs 50 crore each for a water quality centre with focus on arsenic contamination in Kolkata; University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad; Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hissar; and Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology. Besides, Rs 100 crore has been allocated to Kerala Agricultural University and Acharya N G Ranga Agricultural University, Hyderabad; Rs 15 crore to National Council for Applied Economic Research and Rs 10 crore each to Rajiv Gandhi University, Department of Economics, Itanagar, and Siddharth Vihar Trust, Gulbarga, for a Pali research centre.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/budget-2012/union-budget/Right-to-education-fails-to-get-pass-marks-again/articleshow/12300266.cms
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