Budget expectations 2023: Pune educationists want NEP-focused initiatives

HT spoke to prominent educationists from Pune about their expectations from this year’s union budget

With the union budget being presented on February 1, all eyes are on the budget allocation for the education sector. As the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020 is all set to be implemented from this academic year, educations are expecting major announcements related to NEP programmes.

As the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020 is all set to be implemented from this academic year, educations are expecting major announcements related to NEP programmes. (HT FILE PHOTO)

HT spoke to prominent educationists from Pune about their expectations from this year’s union budget.

Rahul Karad, executive president, and managing trustee, MIT World Peace University, said, “Private education institutions country play a major role. The government had launched various schemes for higher education, but there is a need to strengthen this connection between academia and industry for the future. There should not be differentiation done between private and government universities while launching new schemes and programmes for the betterment of students.”

“Special funds can be allocated for international mobility programmes for faculty members and students. The government is successfully implementing bilateral, multilateral and regional science & technology cooperation schemes. Separate funding for programmes will play a crucial role in facilitating faculty members and students at international universities, research labs and vice-versa to foster collaborative teaching and research. These programmes can benefit in building academic credit banks and credit transfers of students. This will lead to the adoption of quality teaching-learning practices, globalisation of education and strengthening international cooperation,” said Aruna M Katara, president, International Institute of Information Technology (IIT), Pune.

While Prathamesh Abnave, treasurer and director of Maharashtra Vidyathari Sahayyak Mandal said, “The Education Commission (1964–66) had recommended that at least 6% of GDP should be invested in education. India’s education budget has never touched this number. It is still hovering somewhere around half of the required percentage. With this budget more focus is on NEP and new skilling programmes to make the youth of India not just job-ready but industry ready. Schools could be provided tax benefits or incentives for expanding their counselling services through career guidance. Budget allocation for teacher training and internationalisation of higher education, the allocation for teacher training and adult education was ₹250 crore in 2021-22 which declined to ₹127 crore in 2022-23. In the schemes to foster tertiary education, we expect the government to allocate sufficient funds to attractive loan schemes and scholarships for tertiary education.”