From regulating online education, incentivising private investment and tax revision, to providing loans to lower income groups, making higher education affordable, training faculty and digitising every classroom — the wishlist for this year’s Budget is long. Experts talk about the key areas that need to be addressed for allocations and new initiatives this year
Reform tax policies
Education is an investment into the future that can fuel the Government’s well-intended initiatives and its growth can be felt by both industry and the common people. A well educated population is the key driver for economic growth. Therefore, the agenda to revive economic growth must include strengthening the education system further. Apart from building up the school infrastructure to improve student retention, the forthcoming budget is an opportunity for using the Centre’s spend as a strategic tool to shift our system’s focus from being inputs-driven to learning outcomes driven.
Budget 2016 could be a great opportunity for the Finance Minister to usher the changes in the sector, at a time when the Government is finalising the New Education Policy. Clearly, there is a need to increase the public expenditure on education in Budget 2016 to drive initiatives. Some of the focus areas that should be considered are—
Incentivising the sector for private investment: To improve India’s Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) across schools and colleges and increase student retention, it is the need of the hour to increase collaborative efforts between private sector and the Government to promote quality education for all. The Government may take initiatives to boost private investment along with devising a mechanism wherein the investor will get a fixed share in return. There is also a dire need to substantially add quality institutions, to ensure Indian students don’t need to look overseas for securing the desired level of higher education.
Virtual or blended education: The Government must set aside budgets and engage the private sector vigorously to build virtual or blended institutions, to enhance access to the quality education.
Faculty development: India is grappling with a severe shortage of trained faculty, especially at the school level. To address this issue, the Government should expedite the launch of national mission for faculty development with a special focus on training of school teachers. The country needs setting up of specialised research and training institutes with focus on areas such as school leadership, early literacy, numeracy and pedagogy.
Revision of tax rates: The education industry also desires that the Government reconsiders service tax on educational institutions which eventually leads to an increase in the cost of the provision of educational services.
Specific incentives and initiatives in the above areas should be the focus of the upcoming Budget. The complexity of the Indian educational challenge calls for greater involvement of private sector capital and expertise, especially global leaders so that best practices reach Indian schools and colleges.
(The writer is Deepak Mehrotra, Managing Director, Pearson India)