The European Union will shortly release the final tranche of 25 million euros of its promised 80 million euros for the India's school programmes. The money will be used for setting up new schools, improving existing ones, schooling the poor and girl students, training teachers, and enrolling children in primary classes—all under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan.
This will conclude the EU's commitment to support schooling in India, to which it has contributed over 520 million (current value Rs 3700 crore) as grants.
Announcing the fund release decision, Tomasz Kozlowski, the EU's ambassador to India, recalled that the EU was India's first development partner in education. The EU had aided the 1994 District Primary Education Programme, in which the UK's Department for International Development and the World Bank joined later as partners.
India has more than 1.5 million public and private schools, which have over 227 million children on the rolls. Around 1.29 million or 84.7% are in villages where dropout rates have been high.
"As the number of children being enrolled in and completing primary school rose, we extended our support to the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan for elementary education up to Grade VIII in 2002, and the RMSA for secondary education in 2012," said Kozlowski. The EU has also provided 32 million euros to Chhattisgarh between 2006 and 2015 for improving primary schooling.
Ajay Tirkey, joint secretary in the ministry of human resource development, pointed out that the EU not only funded the programmes, but also has given new ideas and approaches.
