Cabinet extends nutrient based subsidy education loan schemes till 2020

Cabinet extends nutrient based subsidy education loan schemes till 2020

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved continuation of nutrient based subsidy and city compost scheme till 2019-20.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the proposal of the Department of Fertilisers for continuation of both the schemes. The total expenditure for continuation till 2019-20 will be Rs 61,972 crore, an official statement said.

The expenditure on the scheme will be on actual basis since national roll out of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) entails 100% payment of subsidy to fertiliser companies on sale of fertilisers to farmers at subsidised rates, it said.

The Cabinet also approved restructuring of National Skill Development Fund (NSDF) and National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), a move that will strengthen governance, implementation and monitoring framework.

The restructuring will also ensure better corporate governance, transparency and accountability in operations of NSDC, besides strengthening the oversight role of NSDF.

NSDC and NSDF were set up by the Ministry of Finance and registered in July 2008 and January 2009 respectively for implementing coordinated action for skill development.

School education

The CCEA also cleared the proposal of the Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry to integrate all school education programmes, including Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), under one umbrella scheme from this year to improve the quality of school education.

“The CCEA has approved the proposal of the department of school education and literacy to formulate an integrated scheme on school education by subsuming SSA, Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and Teacher Education (TE) from April 1, 2018 to March 31, 2020,” an official statement said.

An estimated allocation of Rs 75,000 crore has also been approved, the government added.

“The vision of the scheme is to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education from nursery to senior secondary stage in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goal for Education. The main emphasis of the integrated scheme is improving quality of school education by focussing on the teacher and technology,” the HRD ministry said.

The integrated scheme offers “flexibility” to the State governments and the Union Territory (UT) administrations to plan and prioritise their interventions within the scheme norms and the overall resource envelope available to them.

Education loans

“It will help improve the transition rates across the various levels of school education and aid in promoting universal access to children to complete school education. It would also lead to an optimal utilisation of budgetary allocations and effective use of human resources and institutional structures created for the erstwhile schemes,” the Ministry said.

The CCEA also approved continuation of the credit guarantee fund for supporting the education loans scheme as well as continuation and modification of the central sector interest subsidy scheme with a financial outlay of Rs 6,600 crore for the period 2017-18 to 2019-20.

“This will provide education loans to 10 lakh students during this period,” the government said.