With a total education budget of Rs 12,400 crores for the Haryana state, the state government spent Rs 54,000 per child in the 2016-17 academic session. However with 80% of that money spent toward teacher salaries, there is a little window for investment in infrastructure development.
According to people from the department, the amount of money spent on the teachers' salaries takes up a big part of the total budget leaving little scope for expenditure on other areas such as infrastructure development, research and training.
PK Das, chief secretary, education for Haryana when asked about the spend allocated to schools for yearly maintenance which is as low as Rs 7,000 said, 'The budget in itself is quite big and sufficient, but a big chunk almost more than 80% goes towards teachers' salaries leaving very less money for other purposes.'
He added it is due to similar reasons that the government is trying to bring down the recruitment of new teachers through better management. The state government is currently mapping the schools and the requirement of teachers in rural areas.
TOI had earlier reported that the chief minister has announced that in places where the strength does not justify the requirement for a teacher, the government will arrange transportation for the students to commute to the nearest government schools.
Meanwhile, the status of government schools is getting worse as there is hardly any money for the maintenance. One of the principals of a government schools in Gurugram said, 'We get Rs 7000 for the repairs and maintenance. If we even paint one room it is not enough.'
Sources and officials at education department informed that almost 90% of the government primary and middle schools in the city do not have staff to look after the cleaning of the toilets and sweeping of campus in the government primary and middle schools.
'Almost 90% of the primary schools do not have sweeping or cleaning staff in the schools which is a very big problem. Teachers and students either clean themselves or sometimes get some temporary help to do the cleaning work,' said Tarun Suhag president, District Primary teachers association.
Though the district administration has been trying to get CSR funds in play to plug in the in infrastructure gaps in government schools by tying up with private companies and schools, the situation is still far from ideal.