VIKAS SHARMA
JAMMU, SEPT 8: Notwithstanding big claims by successive governments to set up ICT labs and smart classrooms, Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory has recorded zero utilisation of funds meant for establishing such facilities in schools for four consecutive years despite substantial allocations, raising serious questions over the implementation of the Centre’s digital infrastructure programme.
Official data tabled in the Lok Sabha shows that while funds continued to be sanctioned, not a single rupee was spent from 2021–22 to 2024–25.
The sorry state of affairs can be gauged from the fact that between 2020–21 and 2024–25, J&K was allocated a total of ₹5,794.5 lakh, of which only ₹628.8 lakh was spent, that too in the first year of the five-year cycle. Since then, utilisation has been recorded as nil despite allocations of ₹928.4 lakh in 2021–22, ₹1,299.2 lakh in 2022–23, ₹437.9 lakh in 2023–24 and ₹1,807.1 lakh in 2024–25. This means more than ₹4,400 lakh of sanctioned funds remained unspent across four years, an alarming indicator of delays in procurement, approvals or commissioning.
During the same period, 1,102 ICT labs and 3,427 smart classrooms were sanctioned for J&K, but the freeze on spending suggests that most of these either remain incomplete or are yet to be delivered to schools.
According to the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) 2024–25, there are a total of 24,192 schools functioning in the Union Territory, including 10,554 primary, 9,145 upper primary, 3,185 secondary and 1,308 higher secondary schools. The absence of fund utilisation means the real reach is even lower, leaving the vast majority of schools—particularly in rural and hilly districts—without digital learning tools.
In sharp contrast, states like Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh have shown robust fund absorption and infrastructure expansion. Andhra Pradesh utilised over ₹19,652.7 lakh in 2023–24 alone, while Rajasthan added more than 5,500 smart classrooms and 998 ICT labs, and Uttar Pradesh reported 18,445 smart classrooms and 4,590 ICT labs. J&K’s poor record makes it an outlier at a time when most states have accelerated digital classroom integration in the post-pandemic period.
School education experts caution that the lack of progress in J&K not only risks widening the digital divide but also undermines learning recovery in the years following COVID-19. “The failure to utilise funds raises concerns over planning, monitoring and accountability within the education administration. Repeated non-utilisation over four years also risks lapsing of funds and could erode the UT’s credibility with the Centre, potentially affecting future allocations,” they said.
“Unless immediate corrective measures are taken, another academic cycle could be lost, further depriving students in one of the country’s most challenging geographies of access to modern learning tools,” they maintained.
The data makes clear that while allocations have been made regularly, the real challenge lies in execution. For four consecutive years, Jammu and Kashmir has not spent a single rupee of the ICT and smart classroom funds despite thousands of schools waiting for digital support.
