In last one year, we witnessed a phenomenal growth of 25 per cent in education involving both higher education and K-12. This year, we expect the Government to clarify further on the Right To Education (RTE) payments which can ensure strict enforcement of rules at every level. Since there is an ambiguity in the RTE act, its implementation is facing a huge operational setback in terms of infrastructural and logistical hurdles. We look forward to a better implementation strategy of RTE.
The Government has taken several initiatives for empowering youth and digitising the nation. This has resulted in the launch of various products and services, development of skills and large-scale employment in the education sector in the previous year.
With the launch of Digital India Week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi aimed to create an urge in the people of India to gain knowledge and empower themselves. last year, about Rs100 crore was dedicated to digitisation of education. The Digital India programme is designed to provide Broadband Highways, Universal Access to Mobile Connectivity, Public Internet Access Programme, e-Governance, etc. This programme is a stepping stone to the ultimate goal of digitising the nation. In the coming years, we expect the Government to digitise every classroom and provide modern education to the youth. To fulfil this vision, we will go hand-in-hand in the path of digitising every classroom of the country. It will also enable a lot of people to access education online to create skilled labour.
If primary education is privatised, then the vacuum in this sector can be filled a little bit. This will encourage more players to come into the industry and offer quality teaching for primary students. It has been noted that in rural areas, especially, the drop-out rate for girls is very high due to absence of facilities like proper toilets. The Government should direct some funds towards this, for instance, part of the Swachh Bharat tax to reduce drop-out rates.
Make In India initiative emphasises on hands-on learning and encourages young minds to learn things by doing. We expect the Government to promote the development of labs for robotics, computer science, science and other subjects to provide hands-on learning experience in classrooms. This would help develop skills and provide employment.
(The writer is Beas Dev Ralhan, CEO, Next Education India Pvt ltd)