The education sector got a whopping 9.9 per cent hike in the Union Budget 2017-18 with an outlay of Rs 79,685.95 crore, up from Rs 72,394 crore in 2016-17. Of the total outlay, Rs 46,356.25 crore is for the school sector and the rest for higher education.
With a view to boosting higher education, the current budget has allocated Rs 250 crore for capital expenditure for setting up of Higher Education Financing Agency from a token of Rs 1 crore last year.
Another major highlight is the Rs 50 crore allocated for the world-class institutions plan. This assumes significance in the wake of repeated criticism that Indian universities rarely figure in the list of top institutions worldwide in contrast to India’s pre-eminence in the past as a world leader in higher learning. In fact, Indian universities such as Nalanda and Takshashila were among the foremost learning centres, which attracted scholars from across the world.
The new plan aims not only to restore India’s rightful place as a global knowledge hub, but also makes its universities and colleges producers of knowledge for the international community. With a view to facilitating the higher education institutions achieve the highest levels of global excellence in teaching and research, it is proposed under the plan to provide an enabling regulatory architecture to 10 public and private institutions each to emerge as world-class Teaching and Research Institution.
The chosen ones would be granted autonomy on academic, administrative and financial matters, thereby, enabling meritorious and talented students from both India and abroad—irrespective of their financial status—“to realise their dreams and enrol for getting highest quality knowledge, taught by renowned global knowledge providers”.
In this regard, it is noteworthy to mention here that the budget has also made a provision of Rs 75 crore for the Prime Minister’s Research Fellowship, a new entrant.
Further, the IIMs will get Rs 1,030 crore, including Rs 190 crore, to set up new IIMs. In 2016-17, the government had allocated Rs 730 crore to IIMs, which was raised to Rs 857.78 crore in the revised estimate.
The allocation for the Indian Institutes of Technology has been pegged at Rs 7,856 crore, up from around Rs 5,000 crore in the last budget.
A much-needed decision taken in the budget for the betterment of the higher education is the plan to reform the UGC, wherein good quality institutions would be enabled to have greater administrative and academic autonomy. Colleges will be identified based on accreditation and ranking, and given autonomous status. A revised framework will be put in place for outcome-based accreditation and credit-based programmes.
Another well thought-out initiative is the decision to establish a National Testing Agency (NTA) as an autonomous and self-sustained premier testing organisation to conduct all entrance examinations for higher education institutions. This would free CBSE, AICTE and other premier institutions from these administrative responsibilities so that they can focus more on academics.
In fact, institutions such as CBSE and AICTE should serve as academic think-tanks for the whole nation rather than being mere examination-conducting institutions. NTA will act as the central agency for conducting examination with higher degree of professional skill, besides checking corrupt practices.
In a major boost to language teaching, the budget pegs Rs 125 crore for appointing language teachers in 2017-18 as against Rs 25 crore in the previous budget.
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the flagship central scheme for universalisation of school education for implementation of RTE, has been given Rs 23,500 crore, up from Rs 22,500 crore in last budget. The mid-day meal programme has been allocated Rs 10,000 crore, up by Rs 300 crore from the last budget. It remains to be seen whether this would be sufficient to combat malnutrition among millions of schoolchildren, also keeping in view the large-scale proliferation and corruption involved in the scheme at the grassroots level. Programmes such as Akshaya Patra need to be encouraged more.
Another innovative idea, which will help in identifying and enhancing potential of the students and capacity of teachers, is the proposed system of measuring annual learning outcomes in schools. Emphasis will be given on science education and flexibility in curriculum to promote creativity through local innovative content.
The continuous evaluation system in place will also help in measuring the actual needs of the students as well as teachers.
The proposed Innovation Fund for Secondary Education, to encourage local innovation for ensuring universal access, gender parity and quality improvement, is expected to help immensely in developing the educationally-backward regions, and utilise local resources and knowledge for the overall development of the country.
With a view to making knowledge accessible to all, the government proposes to launch SWAYAM platform, with at least 350 online courses, by leveraging information technology. This would enable students to virtually attend the courses taught by the best faculty; access high-quality reading resources; participate in discussion forums; and take tests and earn academic grades. Access to SWAYAM would be widened by linkage with DTH channels dedicated to education.
However, given the magnitude of challenges in the education system, one would have expected better allocation under some education reform heads, such as the school assessment programme and the e-learning portfolio of higher education.
The assessment programme has been allocated a sum of Rs 67 lakh in the 2017-18 budget, as against Rs 5 crore in the previous one. Conducting learning assessment in a mammoth school system, with about 250 million students spread over 1.4 million schools, with the allocated amount looks difficult.
Similarly, the e-learning portfolio of higher education has been allocated a total of Rs 497 crore, as against Rs 552 crore last year or for that matter even the revised budget of Rs 516.89 crore.
Overall, the budget for education is a step in the right direction. Certainly, given the enormity of challenges, there is always room for enhanced allocation, but what’s more important is the implementation of the existing and proposed schemes with all sincerity, if the education scenario in the country is to improve for good.
K G Suresh
Director General, Indian Institute of Mass Communication
kgsure@gmail.com