Outlay for school education has remained steady in the 2024-25 State budget.
Minister for Finance K.N. Balagopal has earmarked ₹1,032.62 crore for the General Education sector. The allocation for general education in the 2023-24 budget was ₹1,032.76 crore.
Thrust on academic excellence has been expressly stated in the budget. An amount of ₹27.5 crore has been earmarked for schemes to help students attain academic excellence and skills in tune with scientific and technological developments.
Improvement of academic standard of schools is also on the cards. Various projects will be prepared for this. In the first phase, one school each in all districts will be upgraded to a model school. A grading system has also been proposed for implementation on the basis of performance of schools.
Teacher professional development has not been ignored. Residential teacher training introduced by the department is proposed to held once in six months. Besides teacher performance, that of officials such as deputy directors of education, district education officers, and assistant education officers too will be evaluated.
The State intends to continue media and information literacy training for students and prepare the next generation to meet the challenges that artificial intelligence and its allied technologies pose to polity and society. An amount of ₹1 crore has been set apart for this.
The budget earmarks ₹10 crore for making schools friendly for the differently abled. An amount of ₹14.8 crore has been set apart to provide financial assistance for educational needs of children who require special care and consideration and to bring them into the mainstream.
An amount of ₹50 crore has been set apart for a new scheme giving financial assistance to institutions providing care for intellectually challenged children, and ₹10 crore for activities of the C.H. Mohammed Koya Memorial State Institute for the Mentally Challenged.
The budget has allocated ₹5.15 crore for education of students from marginalised communities with the collaboration of various departments.
An allocation of ₹33 crore has ben made for school modernisation schemes.
The Finance Minister has earmarked ₹38.5 crore for activities of the Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE) and ₹21 crore for the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT).
The budget provides ₹55 crore as the State share for the Samagra Shiksha, Kerala (SSK) scheme. An amount of ₹340 crore will be jointly utilised by the State government and local-self governments for the scheme. An amount of ₹510 crore is expected as central share.
An amount of ₹14 crore has been earmarked as State assistance to the State project directorate of SSK.
An amount of ₹155.34 crore, ₹15.34 crore more than that in the previous year, has been set apart for providing free uniforms to schoolchildren.
An amount of ₹382.14 crore has been set apart for the mid-day meal scheme. Of this, ₹150 crore is the proportionate State share to the Central share and ₹232.14 crore is the amount set apart by the State government for providing milk and eggs.
The budget earmarks ₹75.2 crore for various schemes under the higher secondary education sector. Of this, ₹52 crore is for infrastructure development of government higher secondary schools, while ₹13 crore is for the vocational higher secondary sector.
