Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday said that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government has made provision of around Rs.2.25 lakh crore for the next five years for implementing the Right to Education Act. “For successful implementation of the Right to Education Act, our government is making every effort to assist the state governments. For Uttar Pradesh this year our government has granted around Rs.7,000 crore in the education sector, which is more than 75 percent of last year's amount,'' Gandhi said at a function in Navodaya Vidyalaya here. Gandhi added, “We have taken a number of steps to improve secondary education in the country. For example, we have permitted setting up of a model school in every block of the country. For construction of such schools, 75 percent of the total budget will be provided by the central government.” The central government has already given the budget for setting up 148 such schools in Uttar Pradesh, she pointed out. “Uttar Pradesh has benefited from the central government schemes and projects aimed to improve education,” Gandhi claimed. Expressing concern over the drop-out rate in government schools, Gandhi said, “A large number of students are admitted in government schools, but still the drop-out rate is considerable. Particularly, students from poor families are not able to pursue education. Though we have scholarship and coaching programmers for such students, a lot still needs to be done in to counter it.” Gandhi arrived here on Friday afternoon on a two-day tour of her parliamentary constituency. She inaugurated a community centre in Lalganj and a guest house in Dalmau. She also laid the foundation stone for the sports complex in the Navodaya Vidyalaya.
