Education Budget up 50 per cent to Rs 70 billion
The Budget provides for a nearly 50 per cent increase in
the total budgetary allocation to education.
The outlay has been increased to Rs 70.47 billion for the current
year from Rs 47.16 billion in the previous Budget.
Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha also pronounced his government's
commitment to raise the total resource allocation for education to
six per cent of GDP in a phase manner. The government plans to
implement the constitutional provision for making primary education
free and compulsory up to fifth standard and for girls up the college
level, he said.
He also announced the formulation of a scheme
for creation of a National Reconstruction Corps which will mobilise
youth for community based nation building activities. The scheme
will also promote self-employment of youth whereby the volunteers
would simultaneously be given training in vocations and
entrepreneurship development for taking up self employment
vocations. Sinha said an inter-ministerial committee is being set
up to work out the details.
The finance minister said that allocations under the Kasturba
Gandhi Shiksha Yojana and the Mahila Samiridhi Yojana will be
integrated to support a unified action plan for accelerating female
education. He said that universalisation of elementary education and
eradication of illiteracy are central elements of government's
social policy.
Budget '98
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