The Centre earmarked Rs 94,853.64 crore outlay for the education sector for the fiscal 2019-20 in the Budget announced on Friday, an increase of over 13 per cent from the revised estimates of 2018-19 financial year.
In the last budget, the then finance minister Arun Jaitleyhad allocated Rs 85,010 crore for the education sector which was later revisedto Rs 83,625.86 crore.
While a sum of Rs 38,317.01 crore has been set aside forhigher education, Rs 56,536.63 crore has been earmarked for school education.
The government has made available Rs 30,000 crore using theHigher Education Financing Agency (HEFA) funding mechanism, the HRD ministrysaid.
The outlay for the University Grants Commission saw adecline as compared to 2018-19. A total amount of Rs 4,600.66 crore has beenallocated for the UGC, as against the revised estimate of Rs 4,687.23 crore in2018-19. The initial outlay was Rs 4,722.75 crore.
The budget outlay for Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs)is Rs 6,409.95 crore, while it is Rs 445.53 crore for the Indian Institutes ofManagement (IIMs) and Rs 899.22 crore for the Indian Institute of Science,Education and Research (IISERs).
The Centre also allocated Rs 400 crore for setting upworld-class education institutes and announced ‘Study in India’ programme aimedat attracting foreign students to the country.
Presenting the first Budget of the NDA government in itssecond term, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the government willbring in a new national education policy to transform India’s higher educationsystem into one of the best in the world.
The policy proposes major changes in both school and highereducation, improved governance and gives more focus on research and innovation,for which a National Research Foundation (NRF) would be set up to coordinateand promote research in the country, she said.
“The NRF will ensure that the overall researchecosystem in the country is strengthened with focus on identified thrust areasrelevant to our national priorities and towards basic science withoutduplication of effort and expenditure,” the minister explained.
Sitharaman said the funds available with all the ministrieswill be integrated in the NRF and would be adequately supplemented withadditional funds.
She said massive online open courses through the SWAYAMinitiative have helped bridge the digital divide for disadvantaged section ofthe student community.
SWAYAM is a government programme aimed at taking the bestteaching and learning resources to all, including the most disadvantaged bybridging the digital divide.
To upgrade the quality of teaching, the Global Initiative ofAcademic Networks (GIAN) programme in higher education was started, aimed attapping the global pool of scientists and researchers, Sitharaman said.
The IMPRINT or IMPacting Research INnovation and Technologyscheme began as a pan-IIT and Indian Institute of Science joint initiative todevelop a roadmap for research to solve major engineering and technologychallenges in selected domains needed by the country, she said. The minister said it is because of this thathigher education institutions are now becoming the centres of innovation.