May 30: The government has allocated Rs 16 billion more budget for the education sector in the upcoming fiscal  year as compared to the current fiscal year.    
Tabling the budget during a joint session of parliament on Sunday, Finance Minister Janardan Sharma said that a budget of Rs 196 billion has been allocated for the Ministry of Education in the upcoming fiscal year. The budget has been provided for  the ministry, and the province and local levels under the ministry. Categorically, the ministry has received a budget of Rs 70 billion while the and local levels have been allocated Rs 5.32 billion and Rs 121 billion respectively.    
The budget has linked education to labour, employment and production. Development of quality and productive human resources, continuation of school sector reform programme, increase in youth literacy rate, increase in gross school enrollment, creation of environment to guarantee vocational knowledge and skill are some of the key features under the education sector.    
The present scheme of day meal up to Grade 5 would be expanded up to Grade 7, the finance minister said.    
Similarly, restructuring of CTEVT is also on the cards. According to the finance minister, Rs 8.30 billion has been allocated to hand over technical knowledge to the local levels.    
 The government has also decided to facilitate visa processing for foreign students aspiring to acquire higher education in Nepal. Internet service would be provided at half the tariff to community schools for the expansion of information technology. -- RSS