Budget 2022 allocates Rs 1 lakh to set up 200 TV channels; education ministry to seek clarity

The education ministry is caught in the middle of an equation too hard to solve. The Budget 2022 has proposed to set up 200 TV channels and a host of initiatives under the PM e-Vidya scheme but allocated only Rs 100,000.

The ministry plans to knock on the door of the department of expenditure to get a clarity in the matter that seems to be an error.

The Budget allocation for PM e-Vidya did not match the expectation and the announcement, said a government official, requesting anonymity. The official said clarity from the finance ministry will only do good as expanding educational TV channels from 12 to 200 needs a sizable fund allocation.

“The Rs 1 lakh allocation looks like an error. The education ministry authorities shall seek a clear picture from the department of expenditure on this during their meeting soon. You need funds to expand the PM e-Vidya scheme,” said a second government official who also declined to be named.

"The PM e-Vidya scheme unifies all efforts related to digital/online/on-air education and provisioning of digital devices to enable multi-mode access to education. With this scheme, students and teachers will get multimode access to digital education,” according to Budget documents.

The second official said there are alternatives available to deal with the allocation gaffe, and floating a fresh Cabinet note can also be explored to get funds.

In her Budget 2022 speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that government recognises the need to impart supplementary teaching and aims to build a resilient mechanism for education delivery after two years of pandemic disruption and learning loss.

“For this purpose, ‘one class-one TV channel’ programme of PM e-Vidya will be expanded from 12 to 200 TV channels. This will enable all states to provide supplementary education in regional languages for classes 1-12,” she said in her Budget speech to a rousing welcome from lawmakers.