The Union Budget 2018-19 is out today, which have something for everybody, including a big infrastructural push to the education sector. While announcing his Union budget 2018, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced various benefits for students and education sector in India. Fellowships for 1,000 top engineering students for pursuing a doctorate, 24 new medical colleges and a new funding mechanism for higher education institutes were among the key initiatives in the education budget 2018, announced in the Union 2018-19 budget.
The major highlights of the Union Budget Speech 2018-19 as concerned with the Education sector i.e Education Budget 2018 are provided below.
- With the aim to impart quality education to the students in the country, Government plans to step up investments in research and related infrastructure in premier educational institutions, including health institutions.
- The finance minister proposed to launch ‘‘Revitalising Infrastructure and Systems in Education (RISE) by 2022’’ with a total investment of Rs 1,00,000 crore in next four years.
- The Finance Minister also proposed significant investments in the higher education. The government would launch the ‘‘Prime Minister’s Research Fellowship (PMRF)’’ Scheme this year. The scheme will provide an opportunity to 1,000 engineering students in the country to pursue a PhD in IITs and Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore. “The students will also be rewarded with a handsome fellowship (Scholarship) amount to study at any of the IITs or the Indian Institute of Science,” Jaitley said. The government announced a fellowship for pursuing PhDs but did not mention the grant amount.
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- Government plans to Boost the technology – specifically to Artificial Intelligence – Centres of excellence would be set up on robotics, AI, Internet of things (IoT) with emphasis on initiating national programmes on AI.
- To support infrastructural push, Jaitley proposed setting up of two new full-fledged Schools of Planning and Architecture (SPA) along with 18 Schools of Planning and Architecture at the existing Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and National Institutes of Technology (NITs) that would have an autonomous existence.
- In a major reform movement for the higher education sector, the government has also announced a new model for funding infrastructure in the centrally-funded higher educational institutions, calling on IITs, NITs and IIMs to pitch in with 25% of total funds needed.
- An outlay of Rs 85,010 crore was made by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for the education budget for the next fiscal, on Thursday. While Rs 35,010 crore has been allocated for higher education, an amount of Rs 50,000 crore has been earmarked for school education.
- While presenting the Union Budget speech on Thursday in Lok Sabha, Jaitley said, “We have managed to get children to school but the quality of education is still a concern. Education will be treated holistically without segmentation from class nursery to 12th”. By 2022, every block with more than 50% ST (Scheduled Tribe) population and at least 20,000 tribal people will have ‘Ekalavya’ School on the lines of Navodaya Vidayalas.
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- The Finance Minister aims at using the technology to improve the quality of the education from the grassroots itself. The Budget 2018 made it clear that the government will initiate an integrated B.Ed. programme for teachers. Training of teachers during service is extremely critical. The government has amended the Right to Education Act to enable more than 13 lakh untrained teachers to get trained. Technology will also be used to upgrade the skills of teachers through the recently launched digital portal ‘‘DIKSHA’’.
- To bridge the gap between doctor-patient ratio in the country, the finance minister proposed setting up of 24 new government medical colleges by upgrading existing district hospitals in the country. The government aims to set up at least one medical college for three Parliamentary constituencies.
Initiatives such as Ease of Doing Business and boost to SME along with other initiatives of the government should create more employment opportunities for the graduating students. AfterGraduation appreciates the Modi Government which shifts the focus from introducing new institutes to consolidating the measures and improving the quality of existing education and related infrastructure.
Here you got the details about Education Budget 2018 allocated and planned in Union Budget 2018-19. Have any inputs or comments, you are Welcome to post either on the AfterGraduation Forum or in the below comment box. Connect with us for more updates, follow Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter.
