What the Budget Didn’t Do for Education?

It could have focused on financial allocation to increase gross enrolment, among other things.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman continued the focus on expanding the economy through unleashing human capital, developing green infrastructure, research and innovation, skilling, 5G technology, and digitisation. This year’s Budget speech emphasised the need for “reaching the last mile” as a recommitment to inclusive growth.

The education sector’s long-held demand to enhance allocation to 6% of the GDP has yet to come about, though funding over the last year’s figure saw 8% increase. This trend is likely to continue as the size of the GDP increases, year-on-year.

A meta-analysis of the five Budgets presented by Sitharaman suggests a multipronged strategy by the government to realise the full potential of the education sector in nation building. The National Education Policy 2020 is set to catalyse the efforts. Empowering the youth through the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana 4.0, revisioning recruitment, retention, and career progression of teachers, creating new models of quality schools through 14,500 PM SHRI Schools, Eklavya Model Residential Schools and Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas, 100 Sainik schools in PPP mode, are aimed at expanding access to quality education to all. Embedding 5G technologies, artificial intelligence, focus on research and innovation, setting up labs in engineering colleges, and the digital library will help broaden digital infrastructure.

A major challenge is with respect to the increase in gross enrolment in higher education, which currently has 35 million students enrolled. The government plans to double the number to attain 50% enrolment in higher education. That will require additional institutions of higher learning, trained faculty, infrastructure, housing, facility for research and collaboration. The Budget needed to be more active in providing a roadmap and financial allocation to meet this demand.

A greater incentive is required to promote research and innovation in all areas of human development, cutting-edge technologies, agriculture and health, but the Budget still needs to reflect. The Study in India programme to attract foreign students to top-ranking universities is a dream project of the government. Its success will depend on a large corpus available as a scholarship.

The education lifecycle has the end goal of student success encompassing health and well-being, economic and employment opportunity, character building, global citizenship, peace and prosperity. That needs an enabling environment, infrastructure and resources that the Budget must provide. This Budget could have made special provisions laying a robust structure for foundation years of learning that will be rolled out as part of the NEP’s implementation. Socioeconomic context is crucial to student success. That makes equity and access even more critical if we are to realise the dream of a developed nation by 2047.

The measures announced in the Budget FY24 will allow the country to ensure continued growth in education. However, a much-awaited relief in education loans, and GST levied on educational products and services needed to get the attention of the minister. The World Economic Forum has reiterated that education affects a country’s productivity by increasing the collective ability of the workforce, facilitating the transfer of knowledge about new information, products and technologies created by others, and growth potential to develop further understanding, products and technologies. Thus it is imperative that budgeting for education is central to a country’s vision. Does the Union Budget FY24 match up to it? That’s some food for thought.

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First published on Financial Express, Feb 2023.

Link : https://www.financialexpress.com/education-2/what-the-budget-didnt-do-for-education/2986272/