Chandigarh, February 28: Education in government schools will be free for all students up to class 12, Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Badal announced in his budget speech on Friday.
Education was only free for girl students up till now. In his speech, Badal said at Rs 13,092 crore, the highest allocation in the budget was granted to the education sector.
Apart from this, the government has announced the setting up of several new colleges and has allotted funds for infrastructure improvement in government schools.
Key announcements:
- A law college to be set up at Patti and an open university in Patiala
- Two new agriculture colleges at Gurdaspur and Balachaur to be set up
- 4,150 additional classrooms to be constructed at a cost of Rs 100 crore.
- Rs 75 crore allotted for repair or unsafe school buildings
- 259 government senior secondary smart schools to get 10 KW solar plants
- Rs 100 crore allotted for digital education in government school classrooms
- Rs 324 crore assigned for employment generation and Rs 148 crore for skill development.
- Grant-in-aid in Universities increased by 6 per cent.
