 |
|
||
 |
|||
| Improve Your World | Home | About Us | Sitemap | Search | Contact Us | ||
|
|
||||||||
| Also see : Education, Education Focus Group, Career Counselling |
| Below are the News Articles / Stories pertaining to the Social Cause
'Education'. To see our Resourse Section on 'Education', please click here. |
| Home >> Education - News Articles >> Education - News Articles |   Email this Page |
|
|||
|
84% of Mumbai's education funds unused Mr P Chidambaram may have increased overall allocation to the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) from Rs 13,000 cr to Rs 21,000 cr in Budget 07, but one look at the way Maharashtra-especially Mumbai -have spent the funds on the programme and we know what ails the Vilasrao Deshmukh government. Municipal corporation (MC)-wise expenditure till January 2007 reveals that while Mumbai BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation) has utilised only 23.80 per cent of the budget allocated, Mumbai city is among the worst performers spending only 16.62 per cent of the money. So among the 23 corporations, Mumbai city is ranked 20, while Mumbai corporation is ranked 17, Thane (with 22.28 per cent spending) is 18, Navi Mumbai (22.08 per cent) 19, Ulhasnagar (16.27 per cent) 21 and Mira-Bhayander (14.85 per cent) 23. Reasons: lack of planning, improper implementation of the programme that aims at "universalisation of elementary education as well as universal retention by 2010". Among its noble goals are improving quality of education, opening new schools, setting up education guarantee scheme centers and innovative education facilities and and focus on education of the girl child. While the SSA budget sanctioned for Maharashtra for 2006-2007 was Rs 1,064 cr, the state received Rs 806 cr of which Rs 584 cr was spent. Deputy Director of School Education (Mumbai division) Smita Kakan agrees. "Yes, the expenditure has been less but we are confident that the figures will go up by March-end." An educationist associated with SSA said the problem boils down to accountability. "There is no proper mechanism or prior research done to check whether a particular district or corporation requires the money that has been allotted. So it's not surprising that a large part of the funds remain unutilised," he said. Of the 33 districts covered under the scheme, expenditure figures reveal the state average to be approximately 55 per cent with Education Minister Vasant Purke's constituency, Yavatmal, ranking 24. While Yavatmal has spent 47.35 per cent of the allocated funds, the worst performers include Nagpur (43.95 spending) at rank 30, Kolhapur (42.42 per cent ) at rank 31, Buldhana (34.66 per cent ) at rank 32 and Jalgaon (29.25 per cent) at rank 33. But while Jalgaon ranks last as a district, it tops the list of municipal corporations with 57.51 per cent spending. Similarly, while the state of affairs in Pune corporation with 36.14 per cent spending is dismal, Pune district (61.70 per cent spending) is one of the best performers. Educationists say a number of factors are responsible-like, the absence of accountability among officials responsible for implementing the scheme, lack of innovations in teaching methods, and improper utilisation of funds meant for computer education. Moreover, they say, there are at best sporadic checks on the district-level resource groups (DRG) which were set up to serve as think-tanks and are responsible for improving education quality, teacher training and guidance. Not surprisingly though a government officer paints a different picture. "Maharashtra is ahead of a number of states. It's a few districts which feature in the bottom 10 that's adversely affecting the overall performance." URL : http://in.news.yahoo.com/070308/48/6d1on.html |
| Also see : Education, Education Focus Group, Career Counselling |
