We don’t have enough money, HRD tells PM

Though the Prime Minister’s proposal would imply at least two vidyalayas in each district, the initial target of the scheme was one vidyalaya in each of the over 500 districts. Now the HRD Ministry is thinking of increasing the number of students admitted to each class from 80 to 120, instead of undertaking more construction activity.

Not surprisingly, even the Rs 231 crore allocated in1997-98 did not go very far. The budget estimate for 1998-99 is Rs 362 crore. Unlike in other schemes, the utilisation of funds by the Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti is 100 per cent.

As Navodaya Vidyalayas are residential schools, the expenditure per student is Rs 14,879 every year. With an 85.8 pass percentage (the CBSE average is 63.2) for Class X and a pass percentage of 81.2 (the CBSE average is 72.6) for Class XII, the Navodaya Vidyalayas have acquitted themselves fairly well.

In fact, a socio-economic survey of 221 Vidyalayas in 1989-90 and of 94 Vidyalayas in 1995-96 showed that over 60 per cent of the students were from families with incomes of less than Rs 12,000 every year. Over 16 per cent had illiterate fathers and over 39 per cent had illiterate mothers.