Improving learning levels among school children, upgrading government schools to include higher grades and providing nutritional support for Anganwadi students are among the highlights for school education in the state budget presented by Karnataka Chief minister Siddaramaiah on Friday.

Chief minister Siddaramaiah’s 16^th budget had several new announcements for primary, pre primary and higher education besides specific projects dedicated for minority students.

To provide quality education from pre-primary level up to PU level under one roof, 500 new Karnataka Public Schools will be started at a cost of Rs. 2,500 crores with assistance from Asian Development Bank. 

The eggs or bananas which are being given to 53 lakh school children twice a week to mitigate malnutrition amongst school children has been extended to six days a week with support from the Azim Premji Foundation at a cost of Rs1,500 crore. This programme will be continued in 2025-26.

Programme for provision of Ragi with hot milk will be extended to five days a week with a total cost of Rs.100 crore. 25 percent of this project cost will be borne by the State Government.

The monthly honorarium of guest teachers working in government primary and secondary schools and guest lecturers working in government P.U colleges will be enhanced by Rs. 2,000 each.

“Improving the learning outcomes in school education is our priority. An ambitious three-year programme will be implemented to ensure students from LKG to second PUC reach the learning outcomes as per their grades. The results of SSLC and PUC are intended to be improved through these reforms. The following initiatives are planned to be taken up for the purpose: i. more pre-primaries will be established in 5,000 schools at a cost of Rs.70 crore. ii. Under ‘Kalika Chilume’ programme learning will be made a joyful experience for students of class 1 to 5. iii. Under the ‘Ganita-Ganaka’ programme, individual phone-based teaching will be provided to students of Classes 3 to 5 to improve foundational maths skills. This will also be extended to the entire State,” chief minister Siddaramaiah said.

Repair work will be taken up in Government Schools and PU colleges at a cost of Rs. 725 crore and necessary furniture will be provided at a cost of Rs.50 crore. Computer and science labs will be set up in 500 more schools in the current year.

5,267 vacant teaching posts in Government Primary and High Schools in Kalyana Karnataka region will be filled.

New programmes

Odhu Karnataka: Foundational literacy and numeracy for Class 4-5 students.

Marusinchana Programme: Boost learning in Class 6-10 students in low-performing schools.

Kalika Deepa Programme: AI-based initiative to help students learn Kannada, English, and math in 2,000 schools.

Jnana Setu Programme: Collaboration with Khan Academy to improve science and math teaching for 20 lakh students and 15,000 teachers.

I-Code Labs: Coding introduced in 63 ICT-equipped government schools, benefiting 756 Spoke schools.

Vidya Vijeta Programme: CET/NEET/JEE training for 25,000 pre-university students with Rs. 5 crore funding.

Nirantara Programme: Attendance monitoring using Face Recognition Technology.

Bilingual Sections: Introduce bilingual sections in 4,000 schools to improve fluency in English and the mother tongue.