Ahead of the Haryana budget for 2026-27, former Haryana Minister and national patron of the Indian National Lok Dal Sampat Singh on Tuesday (January 13, 2026) said the State government had put education on the back burner by reducing the allocation of funds and quietly passing on the responsibility to private entities.
Addressing a press conference at Rohtak, Mr. Singh said as per the audited reports the share of funds for education had gone down from 11.9 % of the total budget to 8.7 % in 2023-24. The reports for 2024-25 had not been audited yet. It is most unfortunate that the education sector from pre-primary to university level was neglected over the past few years, he added.
According to the latest education department report, 40,671 posts of school teachers out of the sanctioned 1,22,359 posts were vacant at present, he said, adding that the infrastructure was crumbling because of lack of maintenance of school buildings constructed decades ago. More than 500 schools in Haryana remained water-logged for weeks during the last monsoon floods.
Haryana had 66 government colleges in 2004 and the number went up to 186 now despite the steady cut in outlay for education, said Mr. Singh. “Most of the new colleges were being run from primary school buildings. Due to lack of physical infrastructure and shortage of teachers, the average strength of students in these colleges was less than 200 each,” he said.
