NEW DELHI: Around 6,787 additional classrooms became functional in various existing schools for increased access to students and nearly 19 new school buildings were completed during three years of the Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government, noted the Economic Survey of Delhi, which shows a big boost in the education sector.
"Delhi has a variety of quality schools, colleges and universities as well as centres for research and higher education, with the male female literacy of 90.9 per cent and 80.8 per cent respectively.
"The literacy rate of Delhi is 86 per cent, which is much higher than the all India level of 74 per cent, as per 2011 Census," noted the report.
The report added the Delhi government has significantly increased the investment in education sector, with the budget allocation for education have more than doubled from Rs 5,491 crore in 2012-13 to Rs 11,300 crore in 2017-18.
Education has been a priority sector for the AAP government, with 23.54 per cent of the total budget – the highest share for any sector – in 2017-18.
The report noted that in Delhi, the per student per annum expenditure incurred by the government on education has increased from Rs 29,641 in 2012-13 to Rs 54,910 in 2016-17, and would be recorded at Rs 61,622 in 2017-18.
The report further observed that the total number of schools in Delhi increased from 5,155 in 2012-13 to 5,772 in 2016-17.
The number of students enrolled in schools increased from 42.68 lakh in 2012-13 to 44.43 lakh in 2016-17. The student-teacher ratio also rose to 30 in 2016-17, the report stated.
The Delhi government has 1,228 government and government-aided schools, which amounts to 21.27 per cent of the total number of schools in the Capital.
Meanwhile, the share of enrollment in government and government-aided schools was 37.92 per cent of the total enrollment of all schools in Delhi during 2016-17.
The report shows that primary classes have been introduced in 155 Sarvodaya Vidyalayas, thereby paving the way for increasing the intake of students in nursery classes.
"The number of higher education institutes increased from 209 in 2012-13 to 219 in 2017-18 and technical institutes in Delhi increased from 99 in 2012-13 to 104 in 2016-17.
"The number of students in technical institutes in Delhi has sharply increased to 34,168 in 2016-17 from 23,581 in 2012-13. The increase in the number of students in six years is around 54 per cent," the report stated.