Budget 2023: Education gets Rs 1.13 lakh crore; IIMs funding halved, CUs get 20% Boost
The allocation for higher education has increased by over Rs 4000 crore to Rs 44094.62 Crore. Nirmala Sitharaman has allocated Rs 68804.85 for school education with an increase of over Rs 5000 crore from Rs 63,449 crore allocated in 2022.
FM Nirmala Sitharaman takes tablet in red pouch to Parliament to present a paperless Budget
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today presented her fifth Budget in the Parliament, where she allocated Rs1.13 lakh crore for the Education Ministry. There has been less than a 10 percent rise compared to the Budget of 2022 when for the first time the allocation for education was over INR One lakh crore.
There was a huge expectation from the Budget 2023 for the education sector being one of the key focus areas of the Modi government since the announcement of the National Education Policy in 2020. The allocation for the department of higher education has increased by over Rs 4000 crore to Rs 44094.62 Crore from Rs 40,828 crore. Nirmala Sitharaman has allocated Rs 44,094 for higher education, which was around Rs 40, 828 crore for the year 2022-23. The allocation for School education has been increased to Rs 68804.85 with an increase of over Rs 5000 crore from Rs 63,449 crore allocated in 2022.
In the Budget 2023, Finance Minister allocated Rs Rs 44094.62 Crore for higher education and Rs 68,808 crore for school education. Central and Deemed universities seem to be major gainers with once again getting and boost of 20% increase in allocation compared to 2022.
While the funding for the Indian Institutes of Management has been slashed by over 50 percent to around Rs 300 crores only.
Budget 2023: Allocation to School Education
In the Budget 2023-24, Rs 684808 crore has been allocated to the School Education and Literary Department, which is around an eight percent rise compared to last year’s allocation of Rs 63,400 crore.
The allocation under Sanagra Shiksha is the same this year will an allocation of Rs 37,453.47 crore. This year the Budget has not allocated any funding for the ASPIRE (Accelerating State Education Program to Improve Results) scheme, which received Rs 600 crore last year. Funding Prarambhik Shiksha Kosh (PSK) has been reduced to Rs 30,000 crore from Rs 38,000 crore allocated in the year 2022-23.
Among major announcements, Sitharaman announced the establishment of three centres of excellence for AI in top educational institutes. 100 Labs at engineering colleges in the country for developing 5G applications to realize new opportunities and 30 skill Indian international centres for skill development of youth.
Finance Minister also announced that 157 new nursing colleges will be established in core locations. An Indian Institute of Millet Research will be supported as a centre of excellence and new-age courses will be launched in areas of Artificial Intelligence, Data Science.
Union Budget 2023: UGC, AICTE, Central Universities
There has been a slight increase in funding to the UGC and for the AICTE it has remained the same, which saw a slight increase last year. The two regulatory bodies of higher education have been together allocated Rs 5780 crore, with UGC getting Rs 5360 and AICTE getting Rs 420 crore.
The central government seems to invest more in central universities as the allocation for central universities has once again been over 20% this year with an allocation of Rs 11,528 crore from Rs 9420 crore allocated in Budget 2022-23.
| Budget Allocation | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Central Universities | Rs 7,643 crore | Rs 9420 crore | Rs 11,528 crore |
The funding for Deemed Universities promoted by Central Government has also been increased to Rs 500 crore from Rs 390 crore in 2022, which was Rs 351 crore in Budget 2021-22.
IITs, NITs, and IIITs get funds
Finance Minister has upped the allocation for IITs by nearly 15 this year as the premier technical institutions have been allocated Rs 9661 crore from Rs 8495 crore allocated last year. On the other hand, the allocation for IIMs has been halved this year to Rs 300 crore from Rs 600 crore allocated in Budget 2022-23.
The Budget 2023-24 has significantly increased funding for premium technical institutions like the Indian Institutes of Technology, NITs and IISERs. NITs and IIEST have been allocated Rs 4820 crore which was 4035 crore last year. IISERs have been allocated Rs 1462 from Rs 1379 crores allocated the previous year.
The Budget allocated for IIITs this year has been Rs 560 crore against Rs 542 crore allocated last year.
The support to the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has also seen a jump this year, to Rs 815 crore from Rs 727 crore allocated last year.
Funding Research
There has been a consistent dip in allocation for research for the past few years as Nirmala Sitharaman has allocated Rs 210 crores which were Rs 218 core last year for research and innovation.
Union Budget 2023: 25% fund cut under RUSA
Once again funding under the RUSA scheme has been reduced, this year the government has earmarked Rs 1500 crore under Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA), which was Rs 2042 crore last year and Rs 3,000 crore in 2021-22.
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Abhay an alumnus of IIMC and Delhi University, has over a decade long experience of reporting on various beats of journalism. During his free time he prefers listening to music or play indoor and outdoor games.