EDUCATION AND HEALTH

 

The Congress pledges to raise public spending in education to at least 6% of GDP with at least half of this amount being spent in primary and secondary schools. A cess will he proposed on all central taxes to finance the commitment to universalize access to quality basic education. A National Commission on Education will be set up to allocate resources and monitor programmes for compliance with national priorities.

The Congress will ensure that all institutions of higher learning in science, technology, social sciences and management will retain the sense of autonomy that they have enjoyed in previous Congress regimes. Academic excellence and professional competence would be the sole criteria for all appointments to bodies like the ICHR, ICSSR, UGC, NCERT etc.

The Congress will ensure that nobody is denied education, including in institutions of excellence, because he or she is poor. Apart from increasing the supply of loan scholarships and refinance through banks, it will also establish a Education Development Finance Company along the lines of HDFC to provide loans at affordable rates to all those who cannot afford the costs of college and university education in science, engineering and medicine. Education at all stages would be free in all respects for boys and girls belonging to dalit and adivasi communities.

A national cooked nutritious mid-day meal scheme will be introduced in primary and secondary schools across the country. The Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) will be universalized to provide for a functional anganwadi in every settlement and full coverage, especially children below age of six.

The Congress will raise public spending on health to at least 2-3% of GDP, with the focus on primary health care over the next five years and to around 5% of GDP over the next decade.

Some state governments administered by the Congress have introduced innovative health insurance programmes. A national scheme of health insurance for families living below the poverty line will be proposed.

The Congress will introduce a new community anchored health worker scheme and implement it with the involvement of people’s organizations and panchayati raj institutions.