Prominent educationists rued the lack of new initiatives and directions in the Union Budget for the all important education sector. In his maiden budget, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley allotted Rs83,711 crores to the Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry which is an increase of 12 per cent from last year.
The Finance Minister allotted Rs28,635 crore for the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) which is the flagship programme of the HRD ministry to implement the Right to Education Act. The FM increased the budget of SSA by Rs1,000 crores while he set aside Rs13,215 crore for the Mid-Day Meal (MDM) scheme. The Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) was allotted Rs4,966 crore.
Noted Educationist Pawan Gupta told The Pioneer that the "need of the hour is to improve the quality of education which is being imparted to students." He welcomed the proposal to set up five new Indian Institute of Technologies (IITs), but at the same time cautioned that "the IITs of our country are fast losing the quality for which they were known". Gupta said: "IITs are losing their sheen as original research activities have stopped in them." He questioned the propriety of engineering and IIT graduates joining management courses and demanded that the Government should address the issues. Gupta stressed that the emphasis of the Government should be on consolidation of the existing facilities than going for an unplanned expansion. He also highlighted the importance of urgent reforms in the field of teacher education as the existing BEd. colleges are failing to produce the quality teachers.
Retired principal and educationist JS Bhandari said that a National System of Education should be implemented in entire country. "The imbalances in the education system can be removed only by adopting a uniform system of education in the whole country and I see no such initiative in the Union Budget", he said. Referring to the budgetary allocation of Rs100 crore for the 'Beti Bacho Beti Padho Programe', Bhandari said the amount is too little to address the important issue of education of girl child. US Gusain, a retired teacher, said that the time should be given to this Government and new HRD minister Smriti Irani for formulating new policies in the education sector. He said that quality interventions in the school education appear to be the top priority of this Government and if this is done in a proper manner, it would result in improved learning in schools.