Education sector Budget 2021 – What’s good and what’s not for the education sector

Union Budget 2021 dealt with mixed reactions as its main focus is to improve the development and strengthening of schools as it will improve the core of education in the long run while others were not pleased with the 6% cut in allocation for the Education sector budget 2021 this may affect the various school of India mainly boarding schools in India.  

Union Budget 2021 was the crucial budget for our country as it was coming after a pandemic. There was the loss of livelihood, wealth, development, etc during the pandemic in 2020, and India just like any other country was looking forward to bouncing back. Out of all The sector that have the high expectation from the Union Budget 2021 was the Educational sector after the announcement of the New National Education Policy ( NEP ) so the whole industry was looking forward to the proposal and its implementation.

When Nirmala Sitaraman our Finance Minister started to address the Union Budget 2021 for the Education sector it dealt with mixed reaction from the experts as it focused on the development and strengthening of Schools and development and some were not satisfied as the Education Sector received a Budget of Rs 93,224.31 in 2021-22, which is Rs 6,086.89 crore less than the last year. 

What’s good in the Education sector Budget 2021?

• 15,000 schools will be subjectively reinforced to incorporate all the parts of NEP 2020. These schools will likewise tutor different schools in their areas to accomplish the norms imagined by the new policy. 

• 100 new Sainik schools will be set up in association with NGOs, private schools, and states.
• A Central University will be set up in Leh to provide higher education in Ladakh.
• 750 Eklavya Model residential schools will be built in tribal areas. The total cost of each school will be raised from Rs 20 crore to Rs 38 crore. While for the hilly areas it raised to Rs 48 crore. This step aims at creating strong infrastructure facilities for tribal students.
• The National Apprenticeship Training Scheme, an initiative launched in 2016, will be corrected to intensify apprenticeship opportunities for youth. Rs 3,000 crore will be spent on the Apprenticeship Act which will supply post-education apprenticeship training to Engineering graduates and diploma holders.
• The Finance Minister had discussed setting up a Higher Education Commission in Union Budget 2019-20 and the legislation for this will be introduced this year. 
• Government assistance of 4 crores for  Scheduled Caste students, the post-matric scholarship scheme will be patched up. Rs 35,219 crore will be spent over a range of 6 years, ie, till 2025-26.
• Finance Ministers highlighted some international collaboration like  an initiative to make benchmarks skilled qualification, assessment, and certification accompanied by the deployment of a skilled certified workforce 
• A collaborative inter training program with Japan will facilitate Japanese industrial as well as vocational skills, techniques, and knowledge. They Planning to provide the same to other countries as well. 
• Lastly, At the school education level, funds for Kendriya Vidyalayas increased from Rs 5,516 crore to Rs 6,800 crore. Allocation for mid-day meal schemes and Navodaya Vidyalayas have been raised by Rs 500 crore each.

What is not so good in the Education sector Budget? 

Though Government tried to strengthen the education institutions and there is a lot of positive for that in the budget but there were certain drawbacks which can’t be overlooked like – 

• Indian is Cutting down its spending on the Education sector by 6% – where the education ministry received The education ministry will receive Rs 93,224.31 in 2021-22, which is Rs 6,086.89 crore shorter than the last year. The budget for Samagra Shiksha Abhiyaan, an essential scheme to provide quality education to all school-goers, has been cut down to Rs 31,050.16 crore from Rs 38,750 crore.  However, to the National education policy, NEP’s proposals to boost a fund for gender inclusion, the budget for the National Scheme for Incentive to Girls for Secondary Education has been decreased by almost  Rs 100 crore.
• Need For Digital Infrastructure– during the pandemic education sector faced bigger problems than any other sector as the infrastructure was so weak government schools there is a problem of electricity, no medium to provide digital education as there was the absence of Laptops and mobile so there does get affected by pandemic so there would have been a  budget allocation for improving the infrastructure of Digital Education.