Parliamentary Standing Committee on Human Resource Development (HRD)

Key Facts

• Almost half the government schools in the country do not have electricity or playgrounds, according to a report submitted by the parliamentary panel on education. 
• In its report on the 2020­-2021 demand for grants for school education submitted to the Rajya Sabha last week, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Human Resource Development (HRD) expressed concern that budgetary allocations saw a 27% cut from proposals made by the School Education Department. Despite proposals for ₹82,570 crores, only ₹59,845 crores were allocated
• Noting similar 27% reductions for the central and centrally sponsored schemes as well, the panel recommended that these core schemes get additional funds at the revised estimates stage.
• The panel “expressed dismay” at the stark deficits in the government school infrastructure, citing the latest survey data. Only 56% of schools have electricity, with the lowest rates in Manipur and Madhya Pradesh, where less than 20% have access to power. 
• Less than 57% of schools have playgrounds, including less than 30% of schools in Odisha and Jammu and Kashmir, according to the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) 2017­-18 survey. 
• The panel recommended that the HRD Ministry collaborate with the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme to construct boundary walls, and work with the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy to provide solar and other energy sources so that schools have access to power.
• The parliamentary panel also slammed the government for its “dismal” rate of progress in building classrooms, labs, and libraries to strengthen government
• higher secondary schools. 
• Out of 2,613 sanctioned projects for 2019­20, only three had been completed in the first nine months of the financial year, said the panel, warning that such delays would alienate students from government schools.
• In government higher secondary schools, not a single additional classroom had been built by December 31, 2019, although 1,021 had been sanctioned for the financial year 2019­20. 
• Only three laboratories had been built — one each for physics, chemistry, and biology — despite sanctioned funds for 1,343 labs. Although 135 libraries and 74 art/craft/culture rooms had been sanctioned, none had been built with just three months left in the financial year.
• Overall, for the core Samagra Shiksha Scheme, the department had only spent 71% of revised estimates by December 31, 2019

Parliamentary committees

• Parliamentary committees are established to study and deal with various matters that cannot be directly handled by the legislature due to their volume. They also monitor the functioning of the executive branch.
• The Parliamentary committees are of two kinds - Standing or permanent committees and Ad hoc committees. The former are elected or appointed periodically and they work continuously. The latter are created on an ad hoc basis as the need arises and they are dissolved after they complete the task assigned to them.

Standing Committees

• A Standing Committee is a committee consisting of Members of Parliament. It is a permanent and regular committee which is constituted from time to time according to the provisions of an Act of Parliament or Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business. The work done by the Indian Parliament is not only voluminous but also of a complex nature, hence a good deal of its work is carried out in these Parliamentary Committees.

Standing Committees are of the following kinds :

• Financial Standing Committees (FSC)
• Department Related Standing Committees (DRSC)
• Others Standing Committees (OSC)

Source: The Hindu