By TJEF Editor Laxmi Mishra
Challenges faced by the Industry
- Gross enrolment pattern: At present, in India, there are about 1.86 crore students enrolled in various streams of higher education including Business Management. The ratio is just 16%. The government needs to focus on strategies to increase this ratio.
- Infrastructure facilities: There is an imperative need to ensure quality physical infrastructure by managing apolitical private sector participation in the establishment of colleges.
- Student-teacher ratio: India has Student-teacher ratio is 22:1 while the average for developed countries is as low as 11:1. It brings the necessity to hire quality teachers and strengthen the backbone of Indian education sector.
Expectations from Budget
- The Government’s budgetary expenditure on health, education, and social protection was INR 8.18 lakh crore in 2017-18. It is expected to increase by 3-5%.
- The National Testing Agency (NTA) which was proposed by Mr. Arun Jaitley is expected to be the main focus of this year’s budget.
- Students are expecting some relation on education loans considering the ever-increasing cost of higher education.
- Expenditure towards recruitment of teachers is expected to be high.
- Initiation of more programmes to increase the gender parity in educational institutions.
Budget Announcements
- The Government has allocated INR 8.5 lakh crore this year, an increase of approx. 4% over last year.
- Also announced Rs. 1, 00, 000 Crore initiative to drive research and infrastructure over the next four years.
- The government proposes to move to “Digital Board” over the next few years to mark the involvement of technology in Indian education system.
- “Revitalising Infrastructure and Systems in Education (RISE)”, a major initiative dedicated towards revamping the education infrastructure, will be launched.
- An integrated B.Ed. programme for teachers will be initiated to ease the training of teachers during service.
- Launch of ‘‘Prime Minister’s Research Fellows (PMRF)’’ Scheme to encourage students to undertake Ph.D. in IITs and IISc with an attractive fellowship.
- To ensure quality education for tribal children an “Ekalavya Model Residential School” will be setup in every block with more than 50% ST population and at least 20,000 tribal persons.
- A specialized Railways University at Vadodara also to be setup under the scheme of setting up Institutes of Eminence.
- 18 new Schools of Planning & Architecture (SPAs) will also be established in IITs and NITs as autonomous schools.
References:
- Press Information Bureau, Government of India. (2018, February). Education will be treated holistically from pre-nursery to class XII. Retrieved from: http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=176050
- The Hindu. (2018, February). Allocation of funds in Union budget 2018-19. Retrieved from: http://www.thehindu.com/business/budget/allocation-of-funds-in-union-budget-2018-19/article22637589.ece
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