The school education department is likely to face shortfall of over 1100 crore in the salary component of SSA and RMSA schemes in the newly integrated Samagra Shiksha scheme, as per officials.
The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has directed merger of all the central schemes in the education sector. From 2018-19 financial years, the MHRD has decided to prepare a flagship programme called Samagra Shiksha which subsumes all the three other schemes – Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and Teacher Education (TE).
The department is under pressure as teachers recruited under SSA scheme have already hit the streets given the delay in release of their monthly salaries for the past three to four months. “As per the new allocation by MHRD as salary component, we have already submitted our report to the state government that there will be shortfall of more than Rs 1100 core for salary,” said an official in SSA directorate wishing not to be named as he was not authorised to talk to media.
Following the merger of the schemes, the union MHRD has curtailed the annual allocation of funds for various interventions included in these schemes. Last year MHRD allocated 1900 crore as salary component for SSA scheme, while as this year the annual allocation for SSA, RMSA and TE is only Rs 1911 crore.
“The curtailment of funds will create shortfall of Rs 1100 core for salary of SSA and RMSA teachers which will worsen the situation in the department as SSA teachers have already hit the streets demanding their salaries,” the official said adding that the reason for merger of schemes is shortfall in budget allocation at the central level in education sector. “The budget allocation for education sector by central government was earlier reduced from 43000 crore to 23000 crore and this year it is not even 15000 crore.”
“The purpose behind merging of schemes is cost cutting and situation can be alarming given the reduction in budget allocation for education sector. Salary crises may arise again and at the end of the year teachers will hit the streets,” the official said.
A top official said the salary of head teacher of a school recruited under SSA scheme has been reduced from Rs 34000 to Rs 30000, while as salary of third teacher in SSA school has been reduced from Rs 30,100 to Rs 25000. “The appointments under SSA were supposed to be on consolidated basis but our government earlier regularised them wrongly and deceived the teachers,” the official said.