UPGRADATION GRANTS FOR ELEMENTARY EDUCATION
4.1 Provision of basic infrastructure for schools will help improve the holding capacity of schools, cut down dropout rates, avoid wastages caused by repetition of children in classes and contribute to the achievement levels. There is need to adopt normative approach in this area and to provide upgradation grants for this so that all schools, at least primary and upper primary schools, in the country have certain basic infrastructures and facilities. The priority aspects of this issue are discussed in the following paragraphs.
construction of Primary School Buildings under Operation
Blackboard 4.2 According to the Fifth All-India Educational Survey (as of 30th September, 1986), 13.54% of primary schools in the country were without any building and 13.92% of the schools were functioning in kuccha buildings. Operation Blackboard, was launched in 1987 to provide an all-weather two room building to all such primary schools. The target was to construct 2.63 Lakh class rooms over a period of 3 years from 1987 to 1990. This was initially the State Governments' responsibility and all existing resources like NREP/RLEGP were to be utilized. However, the progress has been quite slow. While the Centrally funded components of equipment and teachers have achieved near total coverage, only 50% of the targeted school rooms have been completed. About 1.37 lakh classrooms remain to be completed. The major reason for the shortfall in this sector is the resource constraint at the state level. This was sought to be
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remedied by Central funding on a matching basis under J.R.Y. programme. States were asked to mobilize 52% resources (40% from state resources and 12% from the state share of J.R.Y.) in order to obtain a matching grant of 48%. Under this formula a few states have been able to take up a large number of' school buildings. Though additional resources, under the revamped JRY, Employment assurance scheme are likely to be available during the eighth plan, there are two major difficulties - firstly school, buildings have no earmarked budget and they form only a part of the priority items in the self of schemes and secondly, the State Governments have to match the central grant with 40% of their own resources.
4.3 Against this background, it is imperative that the States must be assisted substantially if the school buildings have to be completed and the scheme of Operation Blackboard is to make a tangible impact as originally envisaged.
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The following is the State-wise picture:
State Total rooms to Rooms Balance
be taken up completed
1. Andhra Pradesh 33384 19968 13416
2. Assam 18224 5290 12934
3. Bihar 36386 14580 21806
4. Goa 362 213 149
5. Gujarat 8193 2518 5675
6. Haryana 900 868 32
7. Jammu & Kashmir 3711 2472 1239
8. Karnataka 17492 8519 8973
9. Kerala 1223 206 1017
10. Madhya Pradesh 26596 11158 15438
11. Maharashtra 21668 3913 17755
12. Meghalaya 2503 1100 1403
13. Orissa 15920 4046 11874
14. Punjab 2389 1941 448
15. Rajasthan 9413 8867 546
16. Tamil Nadu 10888 1700 9188
17. Uttar Pradesh 33283 22300 10983
18. West Bengal 13782 12918 4864
UTs
1. A & N Island 30 10 20
2. Chandigarh 1 - 1
3. Delhi 10 - 10
137771
4.4 So 1,37,771 school rooms are yet to be completed for which an amount of Rs. 1377.71 crores would be required at the rate of Rs.1 lakh per room. Out of this, 40% (Rs.550.8 crores) would have to be the State share. It this is provided, the entire school room programme can be accelerated and completed within a time-frame.
Drinking Water and Sanitation Facilities in Primary and Upper
Primary Schools 4.5 The States were required to provide drinking water and toilet facilities in all primary schools as an integral part of the Operation Blackboard programme. They have, however, not been
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able to do so because of other pressing commitments. Separate toilet facilities are considered essential, particularly as a means to encourage girls' enrolment and their subsequent retention. While local arrangements have been made in a number of schools, with community assistance there are large areas yet to be covered. The need for these facilities is likely to be more acute in a few areas and if funds can be provided for about 10% of the schools perhaps the most deserving areas can derive maximum benefit. The requirement of funds at the rate of Rs.25,000/- per school to 10% of the total number of primary schools, is, Rs.143.13 crores for 15392 schools.
contingency grants for teaching-learning equipment 4.6 The recurring cost of running a school efficiently should incorporate a provision for periodical replacement of material.% and equipment. Unfortunately, this had not been possible in most states because of paucity of resources. Presently, almost the entire outlay (almost 98 per, cent) goes towards salaries of teachers. On an average, a two-teacher school would have An outlay of Rs.72,000 per annum on salaries; under the Operation Blackboard scheme the states have been advised to provide at least Rs.500 per annum for teaching- learning material. (This is only 0.7%). It would be desirable to provide a norm-based contingency so that the standards of supply of consumables to the educational institutions is upgraded. it is suggested that contingencies be provided at the rate of 5% of the recurring teacher salary, grant for providing essential materials and for keeping them in good repair. Thus,
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for a primary school a grant of Rs.3,600 per annum would be required and for an upper primary school, adopting the same normative approach, we would require Rs.7,200 per annum. The total requirement for the period 1995-2000 is Rs.1577.67 crore. The statewise requirement of funds is given in Table 23.
Funds for Sports and Games and Play Materials 4.7 At present the primary schools have very little play material. Operation Blackboard had stipulated that wisdom blocks, bird and animal puzzles and toys be purchased. However there is a need to augment this by specially allocating funds for this purpose because:
a) Teachers need to devise more play-oriented activities at the primary stages.
b) More number of sets may be required in the multigrade situation
C) The sets/materials tend to get worn out fast due to constant use and so need to be replaced.
It is suggested that 2-1/2% of the annual outlay on each primary school (i.e., 2-1/2% of Rs.72,000) should be earmarked for play equipment each year. The specific items to be purchased can be worked out by the teacher and the Village Education Committee within a broad set of guidelines. this would bring about a closer interaction with the local community and help in improving enrolment, and retention of children. The total requirement of funds for this item for the 569,893 primary schools for the period 1995-2000 is (1800 x 5 x 569,893) Rs.512.84 crore. The statewise requirement of funds is given in Table 24.
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Schemes to Accelerate UEE in General and Education of Girls in
Particular
New Upper Primary Schools for girls 4.8 As of 30th September, 1992 there were 1,53,921 upper primary schools and 5,72,541 primary schools. The ratio is approximately 1:4 whereas the POA, 1992 (para 7.5.4) had recommended that "the new ratio between primary and upper primary schools will be 2:1. Action will be taken in the next 5 years to upgrade every second primary school to the upper primary level". If this is done 1,32,349 new upper primary schools have to be opened.
4.9 Since it has been found that girls dropout because there are no facilities for continuing their studies in their own habitations, it is felt that special focus could be laid on opening upper primary schools, initially with at least two rooms and two teachers, in the following states which have female dropout rates higher than the national average (68%): Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, J&K, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Orissa, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tripura and West Bengal. The requirement of additional upper primary schools in the above states, as per the norm of 1: 2 would be 107,719. The expenditure on account of cost of building will come to Rs.1077.19 crore and on account of salary of teachers for the period 1995-2000 to Rs.775.60 crore. The details are given in Table 25.
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Upgradation of Access for out of school children
New NFE Centres 4.10 It is estimated that 54.7 million children are out of the ambit of primary schooling in the country. This constitutes 55 per cent of the total children in the school-going age group. it, therefore, becomes imperative to explore alternative strategies in addition to strengthening the formal system if all these children have to be provided primary education. Non-formal Education is one of the significant alternatives where the pace and content are made flexible to suit the socioeconomic context of the learner.
4.11 This programme is continuing in the Eighth Plan. However, it is necessary to bring a new perspective in that provision of access to education for out of school children should be considered as upgradation of facilities for elementary education.
4.12 The total amount required during 1997-2000 would be Rs.4194.50 crore. This is based on the calculation of the costs involved (Rs.1000 per child for the entire two and a half year period) and the number of children likely to remain out of school in 1997. We have deducted the number of children covered by the ongoing NFE programme during 1994-97. Following is the detailed requirement and phasing of funds during 1997-2000:
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(Rs. in crores)
I. 1995-96 1996-97
i) Budget Allocation 205.34 205.34
(Central Share)
ii) Number of Centres 2.56 lakh 2.56 lakh
iii) Number of children 64.00 lakh 64.00 lakh
enrolled.
TOTAL: (64.00 lakh+ 64.00 lakh) = 128.00 lakh
II. Total out of school children : 5,47,00,000
Children to be covered during (-) 1,28,00,000
1995-96 and 1996-97
Total number of children to be 4,19,00,000
covered during 1997-2000
III. AMOUNT REQUIRED TO COVER TARGET GROUP
4,19,45,000 x 1000 = Rs.4194.50 crore
Rs.1000 per child for two and a half year period.
fund phasing - 1997-20g : (Rs. in crores)
1997-98 1998-99 1999-2000
1398.16 1398.17 1398.17
HIGHER EDUCATION 4.13 A note on non-plan resource requirement of UGC for the period 1995-2000 prepared by UGC is appended at Annexure-II. The total requirements as worked out by the Commission comes to Rs.2924.24 crore.
CORPUS FUND FOR STUDENT LOANS 4.14 The general consensus is that is is compulsory for the state to provide substantial resources for higher education so as to meet the manpower needs of the emerging and dynamic economy.
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It is essential that non-budgetary resources should be mobilised to the maximum extent possible in the field of higher education so that the competing needs of other sectors of education as well as of the economy could be catered to. This is all the more possible in the case of technical education where the incremental return of income accruing from technical education are substantial and can be easily realised. For the last few years the fees in general higher and technical education institutions have been gradually increased. The recent decision of the Supreme Court on the engineering and medical colleges also recognises the principle of cost subsidisation. This trend of fees assuming higher proportion of cost of providing education is likely to continue. while this is a welcome turn, insofar as it mobilises additional non-budgetary resources, it would be important to stress the equity issues that arise from this trend. It would be necessary to extend the scheme of providing student loans by commercial banks so that progressively more and more needy students can take recourse to the commercial credit to finance the cost of higher education. To this end, such a scheme would also facilitate the operationalisation of the recommendations of the Justice K. Punnayya Committee appointed by the UGC..
4.15 In order to give a fillip to the scheme of student loans, it is proposed to provide earmarked funds to the State Governments to set up Corpus Fund which will meet the differencial between commercial rate of interest and the preferred lending rate. This difference may be of the order of 10 per cent. The cost per student worked out by the
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Punnayya Committee is Rs.2 2,300 for humanities and Rs.32,200 for science. Taking, for purpose of estimation, a mean of Rs.25,000 per student, the estimated requirement for 10 per cent of the enrolment is worked out in Table 2.6. The total fund proposed for an year comes to Rs. 1201.10 crore.
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