New Delhi, March 26 Congress Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament (MP), Pramod Tiwari on Wednesday accused the Union government of reducing the education budget. He also raised the issue of a reported decrease in student enrolment across schools in the country.
Citing the Ministry of Education's 'Unified District Information System for Education' (UDISE) report, Tiwari said, "For the first time, school enrolment has fallen to 25.17 crore in 2022-23, and further declined to 24.8 crore in 2023-24.
“The report shows a reduction of approximately 1.55 crore students between 2018-19 and 2021-22, a drop of about six per cent," he alleged.
He argued that the figures show the government's failure to safeguard the future of India's youth.
"This decline is not just a statistic -- it reflects growing economic inequality and mismanagement. Poor families are being forced to withdraw their children from schools," Tiwari said.
According to him, states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Assam report underutilised classrooms, while others like West Bengal, Telangana, and Punjab face infrastructure strain due to overburdened facilities.
"Millions of children are out of school. The question is whether the government will prioritise its core responsibilities or focus on publicity and image-building," he added.
He also urged through the House that the government should give an explanation for the decline in school enrolment figures.
Tiwari also accused the Centre of reducing the education budget. "They do not want to create educated unemployed youth because then people will question the government about their rights," he alleged, adding that record unemployment is compounding the crisis.
Countering the charges, Union Minister of State for Education Jayant Chaudhary rejected claims of a budget cut. "The education budget has not been reduced -- in fact, it has been increased historically," he asserted.
Chaudhary emphasised that the government remains committed to strengthening the education sector and denied any financial rollback in education spending.
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