Education Sector: With Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman set to present the Union Budget for 2023-24 on February 1, the education sector has several expectations from the Narendra Modi government’s final full budget before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, as it looks forward to the implementation of several government announcements made in the previous year. Professor M Jagadesh Kumar, Chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC), spoke exclusively media about the education budget expectations and new initiatives planned for the sector. He stated that the budget allocation is expected to be greater than last year.
Education Sector has expectations from last full Budget of Narendra Modi Government
Prof Kumar made no predictions for budget allocation this year, saying the government has a certain amount of funds available to spend in various areas, but education is one of the most important sectors and the government is paying close attention to it.
He further stated:
“During the last two years, there has been a massive effort by the academic communities, universities and colleges and the government to introduce a lot of reforms. For these reforms to be successful, we need to train teachers. We have 15 lakh teachers in the higher education sector and we also need to inject a lot of technologies into our educational processes. Therefore, I expect that the government, as it is doing every year, may continue to increase the allocation for the education sector,”
Professor Kumar further pointed out that there was a 6 to 7 percent in allocation last year, compared to previous year
“I would expect a similar trend to happen this year also and much of these funds will be used for infrastructural development, for creating a better digital backbone for our higher education.”
He also stated that he expects higher budget allocation for the last year,
“Apart from these, the government recently announced the establishment of 200 channels — ‘One Subject One Channel’ — and all these require huge investments. Therefore, I expect the budget allocation to be higher than it was last year in the education sector.”
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Educational Reforms
Professor Jagdish Kumar also announced a slew of reforms that he expects the government to implement in the current fiscal year. Below are his assesments which he had stated in the interview
Establishment of National Digital University
Professor Kumar’s assessment:
“The work is in the advanced stages. Hopefully, by July 2023, we will start with certificate and diploma programmes.”
National Credit Framework
“We will have much easier mobility to move from one discipline to another discipline, from one college to another college, and from one state to another state. The basic idea is to provide as much mobility as possible to provide flexibility to the students.”
Deemed to be University Regulations
“We are going to focus on governing structure of these universities and we are also going to introduce a new category of deemed-to-be universities. They are called distinct institutions and these may offer programs, which are in the areas of national security, Indian civilisation, Indian ethos or highly specialised areas,”
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