Delhi govt's annual edu expenditure per student rising, shows Economic Survey

New Delhi: The expenditure incurred by the Delhi government per student annually on education has increased from Rs 50,812 in 2016-17 to Rs 78,082 in 2020-21, according to the Delhi Economic Survey report.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia tabled the Economic Survey report during the Budget session in the Delhi Assembly on Monday. According to the report, there are 5,691 recognised schools in Delhi with an approximate enrolment of 44.76 lakh students. The Delhi government has 1,230 government and government-aided schools which comprise 21.61 per cent of the total schools running in Delhi, whereas, the share of enrolment in government and government-aided schools is 37.18 per cent of the total enrolment of all schools in Delhi during 2019-20, the report said.

The total expenditure on education, including sports, arts and culture, increased from Rs 6,555 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 15,102 crore in 2020-21, it said.

The share of expenditure on education to the total Budget of the Delhi government has increased from 21 per cent in 2014-15 to 23 per cent in 2020-21, it added. The report stated that the expenditure on education as a percentage of the Gross State Domestic Product of Delhi was 1.89 per cent in 2020- 21.

As per state Budget Analysis Report of the Reserve Bank of India, the Delhi government has the highest budgetary allocation of 23.2 per cent to the education sector among all states in 2020-21, it said.

"In Delhi, the per student per annum expenditure incurred by the government on education has increased to Rs 78,082 in 2020-21 from Rs 50,812 in 2016-17," it said.

The ''Happiness Curriculum'' has been implemented in all government schools under the Department of Education (DoE) and approximately 7.95 lakh students have been benefitted during 2019-20, it said.

To develop the reading habit of government school students, 4,513 classroom libraries have been set up in the primary section and 7.34 lakh books have been purchased for school libraries, it said.

The economic survey report showed that during 2019-20, under the RTE Act, 35,962 students of EWS and DG category have taken admission in the private unaided schools on the basis of online lottery as compared to 32,455 EWS admissions in 2018-19.

It further said installation of CCTVs at all Delhi government schools is in progress and CCTV cameras have been installed in 459 school buildings out of 728 school buildings. The Economic Survey also showed that with classes going online and semi-online, a total of 229 days of classes were conducted against the usual 220 days in an academic session. It added that about 98 per cent of the children received worksheets on Whatsapp or in print and 83 per cent of them had sent it back after completing the activity.