The Education Ministry decided to discontinue transferring funds for uniforms and stationery to Central and schools in rural areas for this financial year.
In addition to the central schools, the government started providing students in rural areas with free stationery worth Nu 2,000 twice a year and uniforms worth Nu 2,500 to some identified disadvantaged students since 2019. However, since the existing practice of transferring funds to the concerned schools in the form of grants will discontinue for this year, schools will not be able to procure uniform and stationery for the students.
“Due to budget constraints in the government’s coffer, schools have been asked not to buy any stationery and uniforms for this year by the finance ministry. That is why we actually wanted to rewrite to the Schools, Dzongkhags and Thromdes to discontinue purchasing stationery and uniform for this academic year,” said Kinley Gyeltshen, the Chief Program Officer at the Education Ministry.
More than 160,000 students in rural areas were benefited from this provision in the previous years.
The government is estimated to save more than Nu 342 M this year from this decision.
Yeshi Dorji
