Relevance: Prelims/Mains: G.S Paper III: Economy: Union Budget
Introduction:
• The Indian education system has witnessed major structural changes in recent years. The focus has shifted from merely providing access to schools and colleges towards pursuit of quality in education, in line with the SDG-4.
Budget Allocation:
• The education budget allocation amounts to a total of Rs. 99,311 crore. The current allocation reflects an increase of 5% from the previous year.
• There has been significant emphasis on higher education which is evident from the increased share of higher education from 34% in 2014-15 to 42% in 2017-18 in the total budgetary outlay of MHRD.
Key Initiatives Proposed Under Union Budget 2020-21:
Teacher Education:
• The govt. is already focusing on training all the untrained teachers in the country through various institutions including National Institute of Open Learning (NIOS).
• The govt. is also striving to utilize ICT in teacher training (e.g. Diksha Portal).
Equalisation of Opportunities to Access Higher Education:
• The current budget by proposing a degree level full-fledged online education programme will attract youth towards higher education.
• A degree level full-fledged online education programme will help in increasing Gross Enrolment Ratio in higher education.
• These programs can only be offered by institutions ranked within the top 100 in the National Institutional Ranking Framework.
Global Higher Education:
• To enhance the inflow of international students, the current budget has proposed to initiate Ind-SAT which is to be held in Asian and African countries under the ‘Study in India’ programme.
Improved Financing:
• The current budget proposes to introduce sourcing External Commercial Borrowing (ECBs) and FDI so as to be able to deliver higher quality education.
Training:
• The current budget has adopted a unique approach by proposing establishment of a National Police University and a National Forensic Science University.
Enhancing and Ensuring Employability:
• The budget has proposed to address the issue of unemployment with the initiative of apprenticeship embedded degree/diploma courses in about 150 higher education institutions.
• Another important initiative pertains to the proposed internship program for engineering students with urban local bodies for a period up to one year. This is expected to bring in transformation in the way urban local bodies work.
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