NEW DELHI: Education is one of the major priorities of the government, said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday as he proposed an allocation of `69,074.76 crore for the sector in the 2015-16 budget as against an allocation of `70,505.10 for revised estimates of 2014-15.
The department of higher education will receive `42,219.50 crore, while the department of school education is set to get `26,855.26 crore. Presenting the general budget in Parliament, Jaitley proposed to set up an IIT in Karnataka and upgrade the Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, into a full-fledged IIT. He also laid a proposal to establish a Post-graduate Institute of Horticulture Research and Education in Amritsar.
“IIMs will be set up in Jammu and Kashmir and Andhra Pradesh. In Kerala, I propose to upgrade the existing National Institute of Speech and Hearing into a University of Disability Studies and Rehabilitation,” the Finance Minister said.
“Educating and skilling our youth to enable them to get employment is the altar before which we must all bow. To ensure that there is a senior secondary school within 5-km reach of each child, we need to upgrade over 80,000 secondary schools and add or upgrade 75,000 junior/middle, to the senior secondary level. We also have to ensure that education improves in terms of quality and learning outcomes,” Jaitley said.
The Minister also proposed to set up an Institute of Science and Education Research in Nagaland and Odisha and establish a Centre for Film Production, Animation and Gaming in Arunachal Pradesh, for the North-East. Recalling that the government had launched a drive to construct toilets in all schools and for the Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao campaign, Jaitley said he proposed to continue the education cess on income-tax at the rate of 2 per cent.