Madhya Pradesh's Cabinet has announced a significant increase in the school education budget for this fiscal year, raising it by 57.4 per cent from Rs 6,374 crore in 2010-11 to Rs 36,581 crore in 2025-26.
However, this financial boost comes amid concerns over a notable decline in student admissions, as revealed in a recent Assembly session.
The government disclosed that, despite the increased budget allocation, the state has witnessed a sharp decline in enrolment numbers across various educational institutions, at 79.3 lakh against 133.6 lakh in 2010-11, Free Press Journal reports.
According to MP School Education Minister Rao Uday Pratap Singh, the reason for this is the “merger of schools and retirement of teachers”. He revealed this in response to a question raised by Congress MLA from Sardarpur, Pratap Grewal.
In his response, Rao further noted that in 2014-15, 82 lakh students received various forms of scholarships in the state. As of 2025-26, 58 lakh students benefited from such scholarships.
Rao stated that while 93.7 lakh students received free textbooks and uniforms in 2014-15, 56.82 lakh such beneficiaries have been recorded as of 2025-26.
The government reported that 75.75 lakh midday meals were distributed to government school children in 2014-15. The figure for 2025-26 is currently 37.23 lakh.
The number of free bicycles supplied to students in 2014-15 was 3.29 lakh. So far, 1,630,000 free bicycles have been delivered between 2025 and 2026, according to the minister.
The Opposition Indian National Congress party slammed the MP government over this information, due to the decreased number of beneficiaries of school education schemes.
“If the number of schools, teachers, students and beneficiaries of free textbooks, uniforms, scholarships, midday meals and bicycles has decreased, then how did the budget increase by almost five times?”, Grewal questioned, while speaking to the media.
The MLA also hit out at the state government over the shortage of 70,000 teachers and questioned the delay in filling up the vacancies.