Education sector gets highest allocation of Rs 16,278 crore in Delhi Budget 2022-23

The education sector received the highest allocation of Rs 16,278 crore in the Delhi Budget 2022-23, with Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia saying the government's focus will be on developing a boarding school for homeless children and a science museum in a school.

However, the outlay for the sector saw a decline from the last budget when it was allocated Rs 16,377 crore.

Sisodia, who is also the education minister, proposed a total outlay of Rs 16,278 crore for the education sector for the financial year 2022-23 which includes Rs 14,412 crore under revenue and Rs 1,866 crore under capital expenditure.

It is 22 per cent of the total budget outlay of 75,800 crore making it the highest allocation.

Sisodia proposed Rs 10 crore for setting up a boarding school for homeless children while noting that the government has taken several measures to provide basic education to these children but the measures have only been partially successful.

"It is not possible to get quality education unless basic facilities like food and shelter are in place. The Delhi government has decided to set up a boarding school with modern facilities for these underprivileged homeless children. These schools will try to bring them into the mainstream of society,” Sisodia said.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also spoke about the initiative during the post budget



press conference and said steps taken in this direction in the past did not bear the desired results because they lacked human touch.

Talking about the initiative, he said, the children will be provided emotional and psychological support at the school that will have "five-star" facilities.

“When you stop at a traffic light, you don’t pay heed to a child knocking at your window. Till date no government has paid attention to the children standing at the traffic lights that is because they are not vote banks'", Kejriwal said.

"We will take care of them. Our government will build an excellent school for those children, they will stay there and study there. We will make them better citizens," the chief minister added.

During his speech, he also proposed to set up a science museum in a school in Chirag Enclave.

With the help of books and videos, the museum will bring alive topics related to science to help teh students understand them better, he said.

“This school science museum will play an important role in developing curiosity and interest in science among children. I make a provision of Rs 50 crore for the School Science Museum in the Budget," he said.

During the budget speech, Sisodia said the 'happiness curriculum' and 'deshbhakti curriculum' have been successfully implemented in all government schools of Delhi.