Education has got a major fillip in the Union budget with 24% more funds for the coming financial year.
The allocation of Rs52,057 crore is focused on universalising access to secondary education, increasing the percentage of scholars in higher education and providing skill training to make more people employable.
Primary and secondary education have been given impetus as funds have been set aside for implementation of the Right to Education (RTE) Act through Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), scholarships to encourage SC/ST (about 40 lakh students studying in Std IX and X will benefit), research and innovation, and broadband linking of 190 institutes under the national knowledge network (NKN). In fact, by 2012, the government plans internet connectivity for all 1,500 institutions in the country.
The existing operational norms of SSA have been revised to facilitate implementation of RTE, and Rs21,000 crore has been allocated for it, an increase of 40% over the current year. Besides, a revised centrally sponsored scheme, Vocationalisation of Secondary Education, will be implemented from the coming year to improve the employability of youth.
“Our ‘demographic dividend’ of a relatively younger population compared to developed countries is as much of an opportunity as it is a challenge. Over 70% of Indians will be of working age in 2025,” Mukherjee said. Accordingly, he has proposed an additional Rs500 crore to the National Skill Development Fund.
The state government wants a big chunk of the RTE allocation, and has requested the Centre to double its current budget of Rs1,600 crore to Rs3,500 crore. State project director Nandkumar said, “Now that the allocation gone up by 40%, we are expecting a better sum to come our way.”
He added that this time the money is needed for hiring more quality teachers. “Earlier, the teacher-student ratio was 1:40, but now, as per the RTE guidelines, we have to bring it down to 1:30. There are several other projects for quality improvement as well, like digitalising school textbooks in the budget proposal submitted to the Centre,” he added.
