This year, the Central government has allocated 368 crores for the National Means cum Merit Scholarship Scheme which is 69 crore increase from last year's budget. Surprisingly, it has allocated no money Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan or for the Teachers Training and Adult Education department.
The scholarship scheme launched in 2018 provides on provides for one lakh scholarships of Rs 60000 per annum at class nine stage which continues upto class 12. The objective of the scheme is to award scholarships to meritorious students of economically weaker sections. Last year, the government had allocated 265 crores which increased to 299 in the revised budget. However, the budget for the National Scheme for Incentive to Girl Child for Secondary Education has been slashed considerably.
In the 2017-2018, 292 crores had been allocated to the initiative while and in the revised budget, 255 crores had been allocated. In this budget, the Finance Minister has only allocated 100 crores for the Girl Child scheme.
The budget for the Mid Day Meal Programme has been increased this year. In 2017-18, the budget allocated was 9092 crores and the revised budget in 2018-2019 was 9949 crores. This year, Nirmala Sitharaman has allocated 11000 crores for the initiative.
However, the government has allocated no budget this year for the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. In 2018-19, the actual revenue allocated to it was 8895 while the budget had allocated 9528 crores. In the revised budget the amount went down to 7490 crores and this year's budget it found no mention.
