Education gets a big push in the Union budget

The BJP’s election manifesto spoke of areas concerning girl education, e-learning, restructuring of University Grants Commission (UGC) into Higher Education Commission and setting up of National Multi-Skill Mission to name a few.

 

The budget presented on Thursday gives a massive push to education ranging from primary level to highest level with plans to start several more Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT’s).

 

“The country needs a large number of centres of higher learning which are world class,” finance minister Arun Jaitley said in his Budget speech, controverting the 12th Five Year Plan document that had advocated a halt to government-funded educational institutes.

 

He proposed to set up five more IITs in the Jammu, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala and five IIMs in Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Bihar, Odisha and Maharashtra.

 

The 10 planned schools were allocated an initial sum of Rs50 billion for the current fiscal year. Once completed, India will have a total of 18 IIMs and 21 IITs. The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government had set up seven new IIMs and eight new IITs between 2008 and 2011, but most of these new institutes are operating from makeshift campuses and are faced with tough challenges in terms of their quality of teaching and research.

 

The finance minister described elementary education as “one of the major priorities of the government” and pegged an allocation of Rs. 286 billion for the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), the main vehicle for implementing the Right to Education (RTE).

The budget allocated Rs49 billion et aside for the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan program, aimed at improving the access to and quality of secondary education.

 

On skills development, Jaitley announced the establishment of a multi-skill programme called Skill India. It would give young people the skills needed to find jobs and start their own businesses.

 

Besides the allocation for formal education sector the budget made special allocations of Rs1 billion for a sports University to be set up in Manipur, Government has also announced plans to set up national sports academy for different sports in different parts of India. In medical education, the budget has proposed 12 more government Medical colleges with dental facilities and four more All India Institute of Medical Sciences at the cost of Rs. 5 billion. The four new AIIMS will be in Andhra, West Bengal, Vidarbha and Purvanchl.

 

With special emphasis on education of girls the finance minister launched the ‘Beti padhao, bets badhao yojana’, and has set aside Rs1 billion for this plan. In addition a national multi-skill programme called Skill India is proposed to be launched. It would skill the youth with an emphasis on employability and entrepreneur skills. It will also provide training and support for traditional professions like welders, carpenters, cobblers, masons, blacksmiths, weavers etc. Convergence of various schemes to attain this objective is also proposed.

 

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