NEW DELHI: The education budget saw a hike of 8.27%, with an allocation of Rs 1.12 lakh crore against the Rs 1.04 lakh crore allocated in the last Union budget. A whopping Rs 4,000 crore was allotted to PM Shri Schools scheme, which was announced in last year’s budget speech. The scheme features setting up of over 14,500 PM Shri Schools or PM Schools for Rising India by strengthening existing schools managed by the central government and state and local bodies. More than 20 lakh students are expected to be direct beneficiaries of the scheme.
Lauding the budget, Union Education and Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said that the highest-ever allocation of Rs 1,12,899.47 crore for the education sector was announced in the Union budget.
While the allocation for higher education went up by 7.9% to Rs 44,094 crore in 2023-24, that for school education and literacy also saw a hike of 8%. School education budget allocation increased from Rs 63,449 crore in 2022-23 to Rs 68,804 crore.
To build a culture of reading and to make up for the learning loss during the pandemic, Finance Minister Niramala Sitharaman said the National Book Trust, Children’s Book Trust and other sources would be urged to replenish non-curricular titles in regional languages and English.
“Collaboration with NGOs that work in literacy will also be a part of this initiative. To inculcate financial literacy, financial sector regulators and organizations will be encouraged to provide age-appropriate reading material to these libraries,” she said. Sitharaman also announced setting up of a National Digital Library for Children and Adolescents to facilitate availability of quality books across geographies, languages, genres and levels and device-agnostic accessibility. States will be encouraged to set up physical libraries at panchayat and ward levels.
She also announced three Centres of Excellence to be set up in educational institutions to “Make AI in India and Make AI work for India.” The ministry’s scheme to help in reversing learning loss due to Covid saw Rs 37,453 crore allocated as compared to Rs 37,383 crore in 2022-23.
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