Union Budget 2018: Key Highlights For The Education Sector
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Updated on Feb 1, 2018 15:01 IST
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented the Union Budget for the year 2018-19 in Parliament on February 1. Laying major emphasis on the upliftment of India’s healthcare and education sector, the Minister announced an overall allocation of Rs 1.38 lakh crore on these sectors including social security for 2018-19.
With a continued stress on digital education, the government's main focus this year will be on transition from blackboard to digital board.
Besides the above, the Finance Minister also announced a slew of other measures aimed to be undertaken in the education sector. Take a look at the key highlights below:
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- The government has proposed to launch the Revitalising of Infrastructure and Systems of Education (RISE) by next year.
- A great amount of emphasis will be given on teachers’ training. The government will be launching a new programme - Diksha, under which 13 lakh untrained teachers will be offered formal training. Integrated BEd programme for teachers will also be launched soon.
- 1000 BTech students will be selected to pursue PhD at IITs and other premier institutes under the Prime Minister’s Research Fellow Scheme which includes fellowships and part-time teaching experience in higher education institutions, etc.
- 18 new Schools of Planning and Architecture will be set up at the Indian Institutes of Technologies (IITs) and National Institutes of Technologies(NITs). These schools will have complete autonomy. This will be in addition to setting up of two new full-fledged schools of planning and architecture.
- 24 new government medical colleges will be set up by upgrading 24 existing district hospitals in the country. At least one medical college will be established for three parliamentary constituencies. The government will also aim to have one government medical college in every Parliamentary constituency.
- To boost Research and Development, Rs 1 lakh crore will be invested over the next 4 years.
- A special Railway University will be set up at Vadodara, Gujarat.
- To improve tribal education, the government - by 2022 - will establish Ekalvya schools at par with Navodaya Vidyalayas in every block with more than 50% ST population and at least 20,000 tribal people.
- The government has also proposed to treat education holistically without segmentation from pre-nursery to Class 12.
Reactions on the Union Budget 2018-19:
The announcement by the Finance minister to increase digital intensity in education, is indeed a very welcome step. Today’s global economy and high-speed broadband infrastructure demand a workforce that can keep pace with unprecedented technological advances. So it is very critical to get students future ready by inculcating the use of technology at the school level. This will allow us to provide more flexibility and personalization to the individual students learning ability, learning style and pace. We can now deploy education content – online lessons, learning games, collaborative tools, that will be more intuitive, more personalized and more effective. –Ambarish Datta, MD & CEO, BSE Institute
Education is the essential of all, and a responsible government cannot ignore it. As mentioned by finance minister in this financial budget of allocating Rs 1 lakh crores to the education sector; it’s a huge jump considering any budget in the last decade. The budget made it very clear for the educational institutions that training of teachers during service is extremely critical, so the quality of education will increase only when the quality training will be provided to the untrained professionals. So the government has amended the Right to Education Act to enable more than 13 lakh untrained teachers to get trained. We are hopeful that by the government promoting about e learning, the education sector moves one step forward towards digitisation of education. – P N Hariharan, CFO, ITM Group of Institutions
It is heartening to see that in the Union Budget 2018, the Finance Minister has allocated Rs 1 lakh crore till 2022 to push research in technical and medical education under the Revitalizing Infrastructure and Systems in Education (RISE). In addition, the initiative to provide for an integrated BEd program is a much-needed step towards training of our teachers. While technology is recognised to be the biggest driver in the education sector, technology alone will not enable, since it functions in our social system, and there are serious social challenges that the country still needs to address. I was also looking for specific incentives to enhance private and philanthropic participation and industry-academia collaboration in the sector, given that India spends only 0.7% of its GDP on research. A strong governmental push in the form of an innovation policy will help. The 'PM research fellows' need not be restricted to only elite public-funded institutions -- one needs to create an entire ecosystem of excellence in the country, and not just a few islands of merit. – Dr Rupamanjari Ghosh, Vice-Chancellor, Shiv Nadar University
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