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Context: A Parliamentary committee raised concern over the ‘under-utilization’ of funds under PM-Poshan and Samagra Shiksha schemes.
Details
- A Parliamentary committee raised concern over the ‘under-utilization’ of funds under PM-Poshan and Samagra Shiksha schemes, which is observed as the “backbone of education” in the country.
- The Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports has directed the Center to identify the factors behind the underutilization.
- According to the report, out of the total allocation of Rs 40,576 crore under the Centrally Sponsored Schemes that come under the Department of School Education and Literacy, only Rs 23,572 crore was spent. Samagra Shiksha and PM-Poshan, which was earlier known as mid-day meal, account for 99.15% of the total allocation under the schemes in this regard.
- The PM-Poshan scheme, under which cooked meals are provided to students in schools, officially covers 11.8 crore children in classes up to class VIII. As schools remained closed due to the pandemic, instead of meals, students were provided food security allowance in the form of food grains and direct benefit transfer under the scheme.
- Samagra Shiksha: It encompasses all major policies and programmes in school education, is funded by the Center and states under a 60:40 ratio.
About PM-Poshan Schemes
- The Midday Meal Scheme is a school meal programme in India designed to better the nutritional standing of school-age children nationwide, under the Ministry of Education.
- The programme supplies free lunches on working days for children in primary and upper primary classes in government, government aided, local body, Education Guarantee Scheme, and alternate innovative education centres, Madarsa and Maqtabs supported under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, and National Child Labour Project schools run by the ministry of labour.
- Serving 120 million children in over 1.27 million schools and Education Guarantee Scheme centers, the Midday Meal Scheme is the largest of its kind in the world.
- The Midday Meal Scheme has been implemented in the Union Territory of Puducherry under the French Administration since 1930.
- In post-independent India, the Midday meal Scheme was first launched in Tamil Nadu, during the early 60s.
- The government of India initiated the National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education (NP-NSPE) on 15 August 1995.
- By 2002, the scheme was implemented in all of the states under the orders of the Supreme Court of India.
- The name of the scheme was changed to PM-POSHAN (Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman) Scheme, in September 2021, by the Ministry of Education, which is the nodal ministry for the scheme.
- The Central Government also announced that an additional 24 lakh students receiving pre-primary education at government & government-aided schools would also be included under the scheme by 2022.
- The Midday Meal Scheme is covered by the National Food Security Act, 2013.
About Samagra Shiksha Schemes
- Samagra Shiksha is a programme for the school education sector extending from pre-school to class 12.
- Implemented by the Ministry of Education.
- The scheme has been prepared with the broader goal of improving school effectiveness measured in terms of equal opportunities for schooling and equitable learning outcomes.
- It subsumes the three Schemes of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and Teacher Education (TE) and was launched in 2018.
- The scheme covers 1.16 million schools, over 156 million students and 5.7 million Teachers of Govt. and Aided schools (from pre-primary to senior secondary level).
https://indianexpress.com/article/india/house-panel-flags-gross-under-utilisation-of-pm-poshan-samagra-shiksha-funds-7823458/
