The budgetary allocation of Rs 99,300 crore for the education sector for 2020-21 hasn’t enthused educationists from the city. Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her budget presented on Saturday proposed Rs 99,300 crore for education sector and Rs 3,000 crore for skill development saying that “the Centre is to announce new education policy soon”.
During 2019-20, the union budget had allocated Rs 94,853.64 crore to education that caters to around 300 million students in 1.4 million schools and over 51,000 colleges.
Prof SB Mujumdar, founder and president of the Symbiosis Society, which also has a Symbiosis Skills and Open University in Pune, said, “Allocating Rs 3,000 crore for the entire country for the skill development programme is not enough when compared to the number of skill development institutes we have. Also, Rs 99,300 crore is less, as nearly 70 per cent of this budget goes into the salaries of faculties and staff. There is a need for more budgetary allocation to the higher education sector by the central government. Another important thing which the finance minister announced in this budget was starting the ‘Ind-SAT’ exams in Asian and African countries. I think that the government should give freedom to educational institutes to take their own entrance exams for foreign students.”
Sharad Kunte, chairman of Deccan Education Society’s (DES) governing body and council, said, “The budget allocated for higher education is very less, specially looking at the new education policy which they are going to introduce soon. To implement the new schemes, a lot of funds are required. The new education policy will bring in many changes in the existing education system, but it unfortunately got no financial boost from this budget, which has disappointed us.”
{{/usCountry}}Sharad Kunte, chairman of Deccan Education Society’s (DES) governing body and council, said, “The budget allocated for higher education is very less, specially looking at the new education policy which they are going to introduce soon. To implement the new schemes, a lot of funds are required. The new education policy will bring in many changes in the existing education system, but it unfortunately got no financial boost from this budget, which has disappointed us.”
{{/usCountry}}Prof Vishwanath D Karad, chancellor of MIT World Peace University and founder president of MIT Group of Institutes, said that the allocation is inadequate given the high population of the country. “I feel that compared to the population of India and huge expanse of education, we should have a higher allocation for higher education in this budget. I think that our country has a huge role to play in the world to promote a holistic, peace-loving society through value-based universal education system and for that, we need to have a higher budget allocation,” said Karad.
However, an announcement that top 100 educational institutions will now offer full-fledged online degree programmes, has city colleges enthused with the scope of the programme. “Degree level full-fledged online education programme will be started to provide quality education to students of deprived sections of the society as well as those who do not have access to higher education. However, these shall be offered only by institutions who are ranked within top 100 in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF),” the Finance Minister said in her Budget speech.
According to the norms laid down by the UGC, higher educational institutions are eligible to offer online programmes if they have been in existence for at least five years and are accredited by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) with a valid minimum score of 3.26 on a 4-point scale. The institutions should also be in the top-100 in overall category in the NIRF for at least two years in the previous three years.
Dr PD Patil, chancellor of Dr DY Patil Vidyapeeth, Pune, which ranked 52 amongst the university category in 2018 in the NIRF and 46th in 2019, said, “We are extremely happy with the announcement made by the finance minister in today’s budget. Through the programme, we can reach students in remote areas.” DY Patil Vidyapeeth with its NIRF rankings and NAAC score is likely to be eligible for the programme announced in the Union budget 2020-21.
(With agency inputs)