Page 39 - EducationWorld October 2020

Prime minister Narendra Modi with government school children in Uttar Pradesh: mass learning & nutrition deprivation

finance, loans and/or grants to ensure learning continuity Response Measures No. 2) Minister’s Rules 2020. (see box
of the country’s 260 million school-going children of whom p.47).
47.5 percent are in private schools. But, this SOS chorus has Against this backdrop, the Union government’s neglect
fallen on deaf ears. of lockdown-battered education institutions was ques-
The mega Rs.20.97 lakh crore Covid-19 economic aid/ tioned in Parliament. In a written reply submitted to Parlia-
stimulus package — “equivalent to almost 10 percent of In- ment on September 15 to a question on “whether sufficient
dia’s GDP” — announced by prime minister Narendra Modi budgetary provision has been made in view of Covid-19
on May 12, and christened Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan in the current financial year”, Union education minister
(ABY), provided tax breaks for small businesses, incen- Ramesh Pokhriyal stated that the BJP/NDA govern-
tives for domestic manufacturing and free foodgrains for ment has provided Rs.5,700 crore for school education to
the poor. However, it totally ignored the pandemic-battered “mitigate the effects of Covid-19”. A major chunk of this
education sector. allocation — Rs.3,771.82 crore — has been allocated under
In sharp contrast, governments worldwide have pro- composite school grants which include safe school opera-
vided substantial grants, loans and financial aid to schools tions and sanitisation, said Pokhriyal.
and higher education institutions. For instance, the Unit- However according to Dr. Protiva Kundu, additional
ed States government in its $2 trillion (Rs.146 lakh crore) coordinator-research at the highly-reputed Delhi-based
Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) think tank Centre for Budget and Governance Account-
Act, passed on March 27 allocated $31 billion (Rs.2.35 lakh ability (estb.2005), this amount is not additional provision
crore) to education. The law provides $13.5 billion for K-12 made under the PM’s May 12 relief package. “A substantial
education (public, charter and private schools), $14.5 bil- proportion of this sum is from an ad-hoc grant made for
lion for higher education institutions and an additional $3 the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (scheme to promote school
billion for miscellaneous “education needs”. In Australia education) in the first quarter which was already allocated
(pop. 20 million), the government has allocated A$1.6 bil- in the Union Budget 2020-21 presented on February 1. As
lion (Rs.8,480 crore) for early childhood care and education a response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Union education
(ECCE), making childcare services fees-free for families ministry has also allowed state governments to utilise the
through the Child Care Subsidy Amendment (Coronavirus unspent amount in the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan account of

OCTOBER 2020 EDUCATIONWORLD 39