Union Budget 2022-23 - What is in Store for Education Sector?
Education is the basis for growth and development that shape the lives of individuals and create a better society overall. If a country aspires to develop itself with a robust knowledge base, quality education plays a significant and direct role in realising it. The Annual Union Budget is one of the significant indicators to gauge a country’s aspiration, strength, and direction a country is aiming in the education sector. This article tries to peep into the budget 2022-23 and intends to give a glimpse of the aspirations of the Union Government for progressing on providing quality education to all.
Union Education Minister Shri Dharmendra Pradhan boosted an 11.86 per cent increase in the budget for the education sector as against the last year, with a record allocation of INR 1.04 lakh crore. “The union budget for 2022-23 is inclusive, forward-looking, and aspirational, and lays the foundation of ‘Amrit Kaal’ for the next 25 years,” he said.
Budget Allocations for Education Sector
- While the total expenditure for the year 2022-23 stands at INR 39.45 lakh crore, the allocation for the Ministry of Education is at INR 1.04 lakh crore (2.6 % of the overall budget).
- The education expenses are broken down into two parts: school education and higher education. While the Department of School Education and Literacy's overall budget allocation for the financial year 2022-23 is INR 63,449.37 crore (60.84 %), the allocation for higher education stands at INR 40.828.35 crore (39.16%).
- The education budget for 2022-23 increases by 11.86 % in terms of budgetary estimates (BE). While the budget allocation for the year 2022-23 stands at 1.04 lakh crore, the 2021-22 budgetary allocation was INR 93,224 crore.
Finance Minister Smt Nirmala Sitharaman announced the budget proposals for education development under the broad heading ‘Universalisation of Quality Education’. Here are the major proposals for the education sector:
- Digital Education
- A digital university will be developed to provide students with world-class quality education with International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) standards.
- The best public universities and institutions in the country will collaborate as a network of hub-spokes.
- Digital infrastructure in rural areas will be improved. Especially through the announcement of the Vibrant Villages Programme, Direct to Home (DTH) access will be provided to Doordarshan and educational channels for villages in the northern border areas.
- E-Learning in Regional Languages
- The ‘one class, one TV channel' programme of PM eVIDYA will be expanded from 12 to 200 TV channels for all states to be able to provide supplementary education in regional languages for classes 1 to 12 to make up for the loss of formal education due to Covid-19 pandemic, especially for students from rural areas, weaker sections, and SC-ST communities.
- Teachers will be encouraged to develop quality e-content in different languages for various subjects. Through this, teachers or students can access the content from anywhere and benefit. A competitive mechanism to promote the development of quality e-content by the teachers will be created to ensure empowered teachers and curious students.
- The concept of digital teachers in all spoken languages will be developed. Learner-facing e-content will be developed in innovative teaching formats such that all content can be made simultaneously available through different mediums like online, on TV, and the radio.
- Focus on Specialised Learning in Higher Education
- States will be encouraged to revise the syllabi of agricultural universities to meet the needs of natural, zero-budget, organic farming, and modern-day agriculture.
- Five existing academic institutions, from different regions, will be developed as centres of excellence in urban planning. These centres will be provided endowment funds of INR 250 crore each for developing India-specific knowledge in urban planning and design.
- AICTE will take the lead to improve syllabi, quality, and access to urban planning courses in other institutions.
- World-class foreign universities and institutions will be allowed in the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City or GIFT City to offer courses in various subjects like Financial Management, FinTech, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.
- Mental Health of Students
- Announcement of the National Tele Mental Health programme as a recognition of how the Covid-19 pandemic affected physical health and the mental health of people of all ages, including students.
- The National Tele Mental Health programme will include a network of 23 tele mental health centres of excellence and NIMHANS from Bangalore will be the nodal centre, and IIIT Bangalore will provide technological support for the mental health programme.
Education Budget 2022 in Terms of GDP
The National Education Policy, 2020 (NEP) calls for public investment in education to 6 % of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). However, India’s education budget has never touched this number yet. As per the Economic Survey presented by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the expenditure on education as a percentage of GDP was:
- 2019-20: 2.8 %
- 2020-21: 3.1 % (as per the revised estimate)
- 2021-22: 3.1 % (as per the budget estimate)
To meet the 6% of GDP criteria, the education budget for 2022-23 should have been almost doubled that of last year’s allocation.
From the budget point of view, the Government of India has considered the pandemic situation and the difficulties the students and other stakeholders are facing at present and converted it into an opportunity and got a step closer to the concept of ‘Universalisation of Quality Education’ and the proposal of Digital University is a good testimony for the same.
Disclaimer
The views & opinions expressed in this blog do not necessarily represent those of QS-ERA India Private Limited and/or its employees, partners, shareholders, or other stakeholders.
Author
Ajay Ramachandra, Marketing Specialist, QS I-GAUGE
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