Former Minister and INLD leader Sampat Singh accuses Haryana govt of neglecting the education sector in budgets over the years

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.

As many as 85 government colleges were without principals and 56% posts of teachers were vacant. Similarly, in 97 Government-aided colleges 56% posts of principal remain unfilled. A large percentage of seats for undergraduate and post-graduate courses remained vacant due to these reasons, he stated.

There were only five universities in Haryana up to 2004, but 18 more had been added. “They are all now facing financial and infrastructure problems. Physical infrastructure is lacking in almost all new universities. Grants-in-aid given to universities had been stopped since 2022; now perpetual loans are being given to the universities, which was not enough to pay even the teaching and non-teaching staff salaries. More than 50 per cent teaching posts were lying vacant,” said Mr. Singh.