An increase in the expenditure on education, number of schools, student enrolment and student-teacher ratio was the highlight of the Economic Survey of Delhi, 2017-18, which was tabled in the Assembly on Monday.
According to the survey, the total investment in the education sector has increased by more than double in the budget, from Rs 5,491 crore in 2012-13 to Rs 11,300 crore in 2017-18.
"This is the highest priority sector for the government, which got the biggest share of allocation -- 23.54 per cent of the total budget in 2017-18," the survey said.
This is a significant achievement by the Delhi government as compared to the Centre's budget allocation for education. Overall, the Union Budget 2017-18 has pegged an outlay of Rs79,685.95 crore for the education sector for financial year 2017-18, up from Rs72,394 crore in 2016-17—a 9.9% rise.
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While the total number of schools in Delhi increased from 5,155 in 2012-13 to 5,772 in 2016-17, the number of students enrolled in the schools increased from 42.68 lakh in 2012-13 to 44.43 lakh in 2016-17, the survey said.
The student-teacher ratio also rose to 30, it added.
The number of higher education institutes increased from 209 in 2012-13 to 219 in 2017-18 and the number of technical institutes in the national capital was reported to have gone up from 99 in 2012-13 to 104 in 2016-17.
Similarly, the number of students in the technical institutes has sharply increased to 34,168 in 2016-17 from 23,581 in 2012-13.
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The percentage of the Gross State Domestic Product of Delhi spent on education was the highest at 1.65 in 2017-18, the survey said.
The per student-per annum expenditure incurred by the government on education had increased from Rs 29,641 in 2012-13 to Rs 54,910 in 2016-17 and was likely to increase to Rs 61,622 in 2017-18 , it added.
(PTI)
