Proposal to mobilise external funds to universalise secondary education cleared by the government

Updated on: Friday, August 24, 2012

A proposal to mobilise external funds to the tune of Rs 3315 crore for execution of programmes between 2012 and 2016 seeking to universalise secondary education was cleared by the government on Thursday.

The mobilisation of the funds for the Rashtriya Madhyamik Siksha Abhiyan (RMSA) programme was approved by the Union Cabinet which met here.

It also approved continuation of 75:25 sharing pattern between the Centre and the states (other than Sikkim and NE states) for execution of the programme for 2012-13. The funding pattern during the 12th Plan Period will be 50:50 between the Centre and the states.

The funds will be mobilised from various external agencies like the World Bank, DFID and EU.

Funds to the tune of Rs USD 500 will be mobilised from the World Bank in the form of credit, 80 million Pound from DFID in the form of grant in aid and Euro 25 million from EU in the form of grant-in-aid, totalling Rs 3315 crore, said sources.

The additional financing will bridge the requirement of fund to some extent. Besides international expertise of the external funding agencies will bring in technical expertise to the programme, they said.

Since the inception of RMSA in 2009, it has been able to enhance access to secondary schools by sanctioning the setting up of 9646 new secondary schools and strengthening of 34311 existing government secondary schools.
 

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