Parliament Question: Inadequate Infrastructure in Government Schools

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION & LITERACY LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO - 303 ANSWERED ON- 02.02.2026 Inadequate Infrastructure in Government Schools †303. Shri Aditya Yadav: Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state: (a) whether the Government is aware that many Government Schools in Budaun district, Uttar Pradesh continue to suffer from inadequate infrastructure including dilapidated classrooms, lack of toilet facilities, shortage of qualified teachers and unavailability of digital learning tools/equipments which collectively undermine the promise of equal education for all and compel the students from poor families to dropout of school thereby widening the rural-urban education gap and eroding public trust in Government promises; (b) if so, the details of the corrective steps strategies implemented by the Government in the said district to ensure timely appointment of teachers, functional toilets and arrangement for clean drinking water and allocation of sufficient funds for installations and maintenance of digital teaching equipments along with the details of concrete outcomes such as improvement in enrolment, attendance and level of learning achieved so far; and (c) if not, the reasons therefor? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (SHRI JAYANT CHAUDHARY) (a) to (c) The Department of School and Literacy has launched an integrated Centrally Sponsored Scheme for School Education – Samagra Shiksha with effect from 2018-19. The Scheme is aligned with the recommendations of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and aims to ensure that all children have access to quality education with an equitable andinclusive classroom environment, which takes care of their diverse background, multilingual needs, different academic abilities and makes them active participants in the learning process. Under Samagra Shiksha, support is provided for strengthening existing government schools and improving infrastructure across the country including Budaun district of Uttar Pradesh. This includes the construction of additional classrooms, toilets (for boys, girls, and CWSN), provision of drinking water, electricity, ICT facilities, smart and digital classrooms based on the gaps determined from Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) database and proposals received from respective States/UTs. Infrastructure needs are identified annually using data from the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) and accordingly, the annual plans under Samagra Shiksha are prepared by the States and UTs based on their requirements and priority and this is reflected in their Annual Work Plan and Budget (AWP&B), which is then appraised and approved by the Project Approval Board (PAB) in consultation with the States and UTs as per programmatic and financial norms of the scheme. As informed by the State Government of Uttar Pradesh, under Operation Kayakalp, 19 essential basic infrastructure facilities have been created to enhance school readiness and improve the overall learning environment. These facilities include safe drinking water, separate toilets for boys and girls, toilets with running water and tiles, CWSN-friendly toilets, multiple handwashing units, tiled classrooms, black/green/white boards, kitchen renovation, whitewashing and painting of school buildings, ramps with railings, electrification and electrical equipment, electric connections, boys' and girls' urinals, school furniture, tap-based running water, and boundary walls with gates. At present, the saturation of these 19 facilities across Budaun district is 95 percent. In addition to the above, in District Budaun, construction of 12 additional classrooms, furniture in 78 Upper Primary School, reconstruction of 8 primary school buildings and 3 upper primary school building that were in dilapidated condition has been undertaken. Under the PM SHRI scheme, 30 schools in the Budaun district have been selected for comprehensive upgradation with all required facilities to serve as model institutions. As education is in the Concurrent List of the Constitution, and most of the schools come under the administrative jurisdiction of concerned State Government, appointment of teachers is the responsibility of the state. The Government of India assists the states by providing financial assistance for teachers’ salary and training under Samagra Shiksha. Teacher recruitment is an ongoing process due to retirements, resignations, and the need to accommodate growing student numbers or new schools. It is the responsibility of eachState/UT to conduct a comprehensive, technology-driven planning and forecasting exercise for timely recruitment. The Department regularly conducts review meetings and issues advisories urging States and UTs to fill teacher vacancies and ensure rational deployment. As informed by the State Government of Uttar Pradesh, during the period from FY 2022-23 to FY 2025-26 Budaun district has been saturated with 593 Smart Classes, 294 ICT Labs and 12 Digital Library. The Government of India, in the Budget 2025-26, has announced provision of broadband connectivity to all Government Secondary Schools in rural areas, under the ‘BharatNet’ project to enhance digital infrastructure in remote areas by BSNL. A comprehensive initiative called PM eVidya was initiated as part of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan’ on 17th May, 2020, which unifies all efforts related to digital/online/on-air education to enable multi-mode access to education across the country under the aegis of National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. States/Union Territories (UTs) collaborate with NCERT to utilise these initiatives as per their requirements in mother tongue/local/regional languages. PM eVidya includes 200 DTH TV Channels allotted to States/UTs/Autonomous Bodies (ABs)/Other Ministries in Government of India and 400 Radio channels to enable them to provide supplementary education as per their requirement in various Indian languages for classes 1-12. Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing (DIKSHA) is the Nation’s One Nation, One Digital platform for providing quality e-content for school education in States/UTs along with QR coded Energised Textbooks (ETBs) for all grades. As a participant in DIKSHA, States/UTs/ABs have generated and contributed over 3.7 lakh content in mother local/regional languages enabling multilingualism. Overall, 565.28 crore learning sessions have been completed on DIKSHA by students, teachers and other stakeholders. The stakeholders have access to more than 450 Virtual Labs and 100 Virtual skill labs (50 each in Hindi and English) on DIKSHA. The Central Sector Scheme 'National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme' is being implemented, with the objective to award scholarships to meritorious students of economically weaker sections to arrest their drop out at class VIII and encourage them to continue their education at secondary stage. One lakh fresh scholarship is awarded to selected students of class IX every year and their continuation /renewal in classes X to XII for study in State Government, Government-aided and Local body schools under the scheme. The amount of scholarship is Rs. 12000/- per annum.As informed by the Government of Uttar Pradesh, the number of schools in Budaun District that have adopted NIPUN (National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy) has increased—from 7 schools in 2023-24 to 433 schools in 2024-25. As informed by the Government of Uttar Pradesh, average student attendance also shows improvement for class 1 to 8 from 53% to 62% between 2023-24 and 2024-25. The data pertaining to enrolment of students may be accessed at link: https://dashboard.udiseplus.gov.in/#/, further learning outcomes of students may be accessed at link: https://dashboard.parakh.ncert.gov.in/en. To ascertain/measure Learning Outcomes for Class 3, 6 and 9, DoSE&L conducts PARAKH (Performance Assessment, Review, and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development) Rashtriya Sarvekshan in every 3 years across the country. The PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan is conducted across different management types, across rural & urban schools and across social groups to engineer interventions for equitable access & quality in education. The latest round of the PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan 2024 was conducted on 4th December, 2024 by the National Assessment Centre, PARAKH under the aegis of the MoE. The report can be accessed at https://dashboard.par`akh.ncert.gov.in/en. Rashtriya Sarvekshan 2024 are available at https://dashboard.parakh.ncert.gov.in/en. The findings of PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan 2024 highlight a significant improvement as compared to National Achievement Survey 2021 in foundational literacy and numeracy skills, thereby reflecting the positive impact of the initiatives taken. ****