From launching two new scholarship programmes for school students to announcement of installing innovation cum start up centre at every university, the State Budget for financial year 2019-20, laid a special emphasis on improving the quality of education in State.
While presenting the budget at Assembly on Tuesday, Chief Minister Raghubar Das informed the house that the literacy rate of the State has gone up to 81.25 per cent and the gross enrolment ratio (GER) and net enrolment ratio (NER) in the State has become 100 per cent.
"This is for the first time that 1,828 panchayats of the state have been given the status of zero dropout while 496 panchayats have been notified as 100 per cent literate panchayats," he said.
Das pointed out that state government is determined to attain the sustainable development goals which include universal and quality secondary education.
The budget called for launching two scholarship programmes, namely Mukhyamantri Medha Chhatravritti Yojna (MMCY) and Mukhyamantri Vidyalakshmi Uchcha Shiksha Protsahan (MVUSP) from FY-2019-20.
Under MMCY, 1000 students will be selected at state level and 3,600 on district level and 2,630 on block level through competitive examination and they would be given a scholarship of Rs 12,000, 6,000 and 3,000 per year, respectively.
The MVUSP scheme would provide an incentive of Rs 6,000 per head to 84,800 girl students of class eight, which will enable them to continue secondary education.
Meanwhile, a new Sainik School will come up in Godda district, which would be the second Sainik School of the state after Koderma.
Talking about the improvement of quality of higher education in the state during the session, The CM pointed out that GER in higher education, which was only 10.1 in year 2012-13 increased to 18 in 2017-18.
He announced establishing an innovation cum startup centre in every university in FY-2019-20 which will promote self entrepreneurship among students. Also, a state level placement cell would be established in a bid to provide maximum employment opportunities to the students of State.
The CM also announced opening of new colleges across the State in 2019-20 including seven women's colleges in Barkagaon, Mandu, Simaria, Littipara, Panki, Vishrampur and Jugsarai, two degree colleges in Balumath and Chandankyari and two professional colleges at Godda and Bokaro.
Das announced launching of Saakshar Jharkhand Abhiyan in 20190-20 under which 12,19,200 identified illiterate persons in East Singhbhum, Saraikela-Kharsawan, Khunti, Simdega and Jamtara would be taught to read and write.
Child budget
This is for the first time that the Jharkhand Government introduced an exclusive budget for children of the State. The 'child budget', worth Rs 6,182.44 crore focuses on health and nutrition of children. The amount allocated is 11.82 per cent of the total amount allocated for various schemes. "The budget has been prepared for inclusive and better development of children of the state," Das said. Chairperson of Jharkhand State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (JSCPCR), Arti Kujur, lauded the budget and said, "This will definitely help the state provide better facilities to the children that in turn would help in their overall development."
