The Centre earmarked RS 93,847.64 crore for the education sector for 2019-20, an increase of over 10 per cent from last Budget allocation. While RS 37,461.01 crore has been allocated for higher education, an amount of RS 56,386.63 crore has been earmarked for school education. Last year, then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had allocated RS 85,010 crore for the education sector.
However there has been a decline in budget outlays for IITs, IIMs, IISER, and statutory and regulatory bodies such as UGC and AICTE in the Interim Budget 20 as compared to the allocation for 2018-19. This comes at a time when HRD Ministry has said it will implement 10 per cent reservation for economically weaker sections of the general category from the 2019 academic session and has directed to increase around 25 per cent seats in higher educational institutions and universities across the country.
The Budget outlay for the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) was RS 415.41 crore, a massive decline of 59.9 per cent from last fiscal’s allocation of RS 1,036 crore. The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have been allocated RS 6,223.02 crore as against RS 6,326 crore in 2018-19. The IITs also saw a budget cut in the last fiscal from RS 8,337.21 crore in 2017-18 to RS 6,326 crore in 2018-19.
The outlay for the University Grants Commission (UGC) is RS 4,600.66 in the budget, a decrease from RS 4,722.75 crore in 2018-19. The outlay for the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) is RS 466 crore as against RS 485 in 2018-19. In all, the Budget outlay for statutory bodies saw a decline of 2.70 per cent from the last fiscal. In 2019-20, the Budget outlay for the bodies is RS 5,066.66 crore as opposed to last fiscal’s figure of RS 5,207.75 crore.
Finance Minister Piyush Goyal proposed the launch of a scheme named ‘Revitalising Infrastructure and Systems in Education (RISE) by 2022’ with a total investment of RS 1 lakh crore in the next four years to step up investments in research and related infrastructure in premier educational institutions, including health institutions.
The Government allocated RS 608.87 crore for research and innovation, a massive increase from previous allocation of RS 350.23 crore. Goyal also proposed the setting up of two new full-fledged ‘Schools of Planning and Architecture’ (SPA) to be selected on challenge mode.
Additionally, 18 new SPAs would be established in the IITs and NITs as autonomous schools, also on challenge mode, he said. “The proposal for setting up SPAs have been appraised by the Expenditure Finance Committee. Directors of IITs/NITs and Chief Secretaries of States/UTs have been requested to submit proposals,” the minister said.
Goyal said technology will be the biggest driver in improving the quality of education and proposed to increase the digital intensity in education and move gradually from “black board” to “digital board”. A dedicated digital infrastructure for teachers, DIKSHA, has been developed with the aim to empower school teachers with access to innovative tech-based solutions, he said.
“Technology will also be used to upgrade the skills of teachers through the recently launched digital portal ‘Diksha’. “A committee has been set up by the Department of Higher Education to work out the modalities to support ‘Operation Digital Board’ in all schools and to provide quality education by effective use of technology and telecom services,” the Minister said.