The Fifteenth Finance Commission had a meeting with the Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Human Resource Development in New Delhi yesterday. The meeting was chaired by the Minister for HRD Shri Prakash  along with the Chairman of the Finance Commission Shri N.K. Singh.   Members of the Commission and Senior Officers of the Commission as well as MHRD attended the meeting.

The meeting discussed key issues of the sector requiring the Commission’s intervention including investment in School Infrastructure, Teacher’s salaries & training, Career Counselling, school students, Pre-schooling of children akin to the Sikkim model to give a boost to early learning, and other issues.

The meeting also discussed steps to attract greater to private capital and private Partnership into the school education sector as well as integrate B.Ed courses into two year integrated BA.B.ED courses, B.Com.B.ED courses in the future to streamline the availability of trained teachers.

The Commission expressed concern over parents’ preference to send children to Private English schools over the Government schools and stressed on the requirement for evaluation of schools and dissemination of the results to help parents in making informed choices.

The HRD has asked for the support  from 15^th Finance Commission on the following issues:

(a) Incentive based grants to States based on Performance Grading Index (PGI).

(b) Requirement of Central funds amounting to a minimum of ₹ 4,37,994.74 crore (to meet RTE Norms and other essential requirements) and ₹ 5,66,087.74 crore to meet the SDG Goals by 2030.

(c) Ring fencing (of about 20%) of resources devolved to the States for School Education OR clear award for States and UTs for implementation of RTE Act, 2009 and other essential requirements (on the lines of 13^th Finance Commission).

The Commission is scheduled to hold its second meeting with MHRD on 22^nd February to deliberate on the issues of Higher Education.

Ring-fencing of education funds sought to ensure dedicated state-level spending for school infrastructure and RTE implementation. The meeting addressed financing and policy measures to strengthen school education-investment in infrastructure, teacher salaries, training, early childhood education, career counselling, private partnerships, and integration of B.Ed into integrated undergraduate courses. The Department requested targeted support including incentive-based grants tied to a Performance Grading Index, central funding to meet RTE norms and SDG goals, and ring-fencing of devolved resources or dedicated awards for RTE Act, 2009 implementation.