Parliament Question: Denial of Quality Education in Aspirational Districts of UP

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION AND LITERACY LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO - 5926 ANSWERED ON – 30/03/2026 Denial of Quality Education in Aspirational Districts of UP †5926. Shri Ram Shiromani Verma: Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state: (a) whether the Government is aware that students in the aspirational districts of Uttar Pradesh are facing difficulties in getting quality education due to shortage of teachers in schools and colleges, lack of modern infrastructure and limited educational resources and if so, the district- wise details thereof, particularly Shravasti and Balrampur districts; (b) whether the Government is running any special scheme for upgrading schools, inter colleges and higher education institutions and setting up new colleges in the said areas and if so, the details thereof; (c) whether the Government proposes to implement any scheme to provide free education up to graduation to all students in the Country and if so, the details thereof; and (d) whether any special programmes are being run by the Government to promote scholarships, digital education, skill development and employment oriented courses and if so, the details thereof? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (SHRI JAYANT CHAUDHARY) (a) & (b): The Department of School Education and Literacy is implementing an integrated centrally sponsored scheme for School education- Samagra Shiksha with effect from the year 2018-19. The Scheme is aligned with National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. Samagra Shiksha scheme has been envisaged as an additional support to the State and UTs to improve quality of education, however, education being in the concurrent list with majority of the schools under the domain of the State and UTs, the primary responsibility of providing accessible, affordable, equitable, inclusive and quality education lies with the State/UT Governments. Preference in the interventions is given to Educationally Backward Blocks (EBBs), LWE affected districts, Special Focus Districts (SFDs), Border areas and the Aspirational districts. Under the scheme, financial assistance is provided to States and UTs for undertaking various activities for universalization of school education, including opening/strengthening of new schools upto senior secondary level, construction of school buildings & additional classrooms, development/strengthening of school infrastructure in border areas under Vibrant Village Programme through the convergence of existing scheme of DOSEL, setting up, construction of hostels for PVTGs under PM-JANMAN, setting up of Netaji Subhash ChandraBose Avasiya Vidyalayas, construction of hostels under Dharti Aaba Janjatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyan for unsaturated ST population, free uniforms to eligible children and free text books at elementary level, transport allowance and undertaking enrolment & retention drives. Special training for age-appropriate admission of out of school children and residential as well as non- residential training for older children, seasonal hostels / residential camps, special training centers at worksites, transport/ escort facility etc. are also supported to bring out of school children to the formal schooling system. As informed by the State Government of Uttar Pradesh, Students in Aspirational Districts are not facing any difficulty in getting Quality Education. Pradhan Mantri Schools for Rising India (PM SHRI) is a centrally sponsored scheme which aims to strengthen more than 14,500 schools from amongst the existing schools managed by Central Government/State/UT Government/local bodies. These PM SHRI schools are to showcase all the initiatives of National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, be the exemplar schools, and also offer benchmarking leadership to other schools in the neighbourhood. In alignment with National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, the Government has launched the third phase of Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) in June 2023 in the form of Pradhan Mantri Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (PM-USHA) for the period 2023-24 to 2025-26 with an outlay of Rs. 12926.10 crore, to cater to the needs of educationally unserved/ underserved areas. The scheme has been further extended till 31st March,2028, for completion of PM-USHA projects and for an additional 6 months (i.e.,30th September, 2026) for completion of ongoing RUSA projects. Under the scheme, States/ UTs have the flexibility to utilize funds for undertaking the various activities including infrastructure upgradation, multidisciplinary education, imparting skill development and quality initiatives, outlined in their proposals approved by the Ministry (c): No such scheme is under consideration. (d): The Central Sector “National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme (NMMSS)” is open to the students irrespective of categories/gender. Under NMMS scheme, funds are directly credited to the students’ bank account through DBT. The Ministry of Education implements ICT and digital initiatives under Samagra Shiksha to enhance the quality of education by integrating technology into teaching and learning processes in Government schools across the country, including rural areas of Uttar Pradesh. ICT and Digital Initiatives component of Samagra Shiksha covers Government and Aided Schools having classes VI to XII. Under this component financial assistance is provided for establishing ICT Lab and Smart Classrooms in schools. The non- recurring/recurring grant under ‘ICT and Digital Initiatives’ is available to the States and UTs for following two options: Option I: Under this option schools which have not availed the ICT facility earlier can either opt for ICT or smart classrooms as per their requirement and need. In case of more than 700 enrolment, an additional ICT lab can also be considered. States/UTs have flexibility to procure hardware such as tablets/ laptops/notebooks/ integrated teaching learning devices and open- source operating system as well as Hardware, Software, training and resource support. This would include support for digital boards, smart classrooms, virtual classrooms and DTH channels on pro-rata basis for number of schools approved. Option II: Under this option schools which have already availed the ICT facility earlier can avail smart classrooms/tablets as per the norms of the scheme. The Government of India provides financial assistance to States for giving exposure to Skill Education to students of Grades VI to VIII and introduction of skill courses from Grades IX toXII, which are aligned with the National Curriculum Framework for school education (NCF- SE) and National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. Vocational education under Samagra Shiksha and skill development programmes in Uttar Pradesh are aligned with local employment opportunities. To strengthen skill education, school boards are registering themselves with NCVET to become Awarding body and Assessing Authority. Further, the provision of Hub-and-Spoke model has also been introduced, wherein skill infrastructure available in designated hub schools is utilized by students from nearby spoke schools for skill training. Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs), Polytechnics and similar institutions are also being used as hubs to facilitate wider access to hands-on learning. Furthermore, to strengthen skill education, the Department has developed a Career Guide Book with 500 career cards across 21 domains, and also launched ‘My Career Advisor’ mobile application based on AI/ML for personalised career guidance. *******