State of Punjab today finalized plan to spend Rs. 3541 crore on flagship education schemes like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Rasthriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan( RMSA) ,Mid-day Meal scheme. Approval for Annual Work Plan/ Budget for these flagship schemes for year 2016-17 was accorded during the Executive Committee meeting of these schemes held under the chairmanship of Mr. Sarvesh Kaushal, Chief Secretary Punjab.Under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan scheme, Rs. 1770.96 crore are planned to be spent on various component of the schemes including Rs. 541 crore on teachers’ salary, Rs. 344 crore on Additional classrooms, Rs. 200 crore on civil works, Rs. 64.69 crores on Toilets and Drinking water, Rs. 160 crore on Academic Support, Rs. 63 crore on Computer Aided learning, Rs. 64 crore on uniforms.
It was decided to issue children school uniform specifications to all the schools for final procurement. The services of Punjabi University Patiala shall be used to analyze the State Level Achievement Survey (SLAS) report and to suggest the future plans to Education department. Chief Secretary was informed that department has developed websites namely ssapunjab.org and epunjabschool.gov.in wherein all the information related to education department is uploaded. Various applications like SSA, RMSA, MDM monitoring, Grievance disposal, Health check up monitoring system etc are hosted on these websites and Applications are being developed for mobile governance in department.SCERT has been entrusted with the work to prepare syllabus for introduction of digital knowledge in primary classes. All 418 Inclusive Education Resource Teachers, 15644 Primary and upper school teachers and 150 Master trainers have been trained on teaching children with different type of disabilities. During the next year, it has been planned to open one residential school with all special education facilities.
Under RMSA scheme, Rs. 1422 crore shall be spent across the State including Rs. 152 crore on Additional classrooms, 47 integrated science labs, 66 libraries, 87 Art & Craft rooms, 535 toilets, teachers’ salaries of upgraded schools and meritorious schools, Rs. 322 crore on ICT, Rs. 20 crore on Inclusive Education, Rs. 33 crore on Girls hostels and Rs. 240 crore on vocational education. Some of the last year achievements included completion of 236 upgraded schools, 964 Additional classrooms, 1114 integrated science labs, 1725 libraries. School Management System has been implemented in all 90 proposed schools of the State. Under Mid-day meal scheme the plan to spend Rs. 348.33 crore was approved to be submitted to Government of India. The plan included mid-day meal to 9, 81,887 primary students and 7, 06,507 upper primary students. The total plan cost included Rs. 209 crore on cooking cost, Rs. 59 crore on cooks’ honorarium, Rs. 26 crore on cost of food grains etc. Software has been developed for sending advance messages to school in-charges and students regarding the visit of Health teams. 19508 schools have been visited by the health check-up teams.
Chief Secretary directed the department to send utilization certificates of all the funds spent to Government of India so that the next year funds can be received on time. He further directed the DGSE to run school level campaigns to complete the Aadhaar enrolment of the students. The integration of Aadhaar with various schemes shall result in elimination of bogus students if any especially in Mid-day meal scheme.The meeting was attended by Mr. G Vajralingam, Principal Secretary School Education, Mr. Anurag Agarwal, Principal Secretary Social Security, Mr. S R Ladhar, Principal Secretary Planning, Mr. Pardeep Agarwal, DGSE, Mr. Abhinav Tarikha, Additional Secretary Finance and other concerned officials.