How Does the Union Budget for 2014-15 Affect Education?

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In the Union Budget for 2014-15, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley covered almost every aspect of the education sector including education for girls; reforming University Grants Commission (UGC) into Higher Education Commission; establishing National Multi-Skill Mission and even developing online learning in the country.

How Budget Affects Education

The education sectors was allocated a total of Rs.68,728 crore for 2014-15. This is an 11.1 per cent increase from the revised budget estimate in 2013-14 which was at Rs.61,857 crore. From the overall allocation, Rs.51,828 crore is for the school sector, which is a 9.9 per cent rise from the 2013-14 revised budget estimate. The higher education sector saw an increase of 14.98 per cent from the previous year and was allocated a total of Rs.16,900 crore.

“World Class” Learning Centres

The major portion of the higher education budget, amounting to Rs.7,138.97 crore, was kept aside for technical education including the IIMs (Indian Institutes of Management) and the IITs (Indian Institutes of technology). Jaitley said, “The country needs a large number of centres of higher learning which are world class.”

The Finance Minister also proposed to establish 5 more IIMs (in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra and Odisha) and 5 more IITs (in Goa, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh). For the current fiscal year, these 10 proposed institutes were allotted a sum of Rs.500 crore. After the completion of the project, the nation will have 21 IITs and 18 IIMs.

Training Our Teachers

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The Union Budget for 2014-15 also proposed to initiate a school assessment programme which plans to incorporate latest training tools; while another scheme, the Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya New Teachers Training Programme, was also proposed for teacher training and development of education. Arun Jaitley allotted Rs.500 crore particularly for this initiative.

Union Budget and Online Learning

The budget also focused on the need for developing online education and providing proper infrastructure so that students from every part of the country can access e-Learning programmes. The government will set aside Rs 500 crore for the Digital India Programme which will make sure that broadband connectivity is available throughout the nation, even at the village level.

The Government of India aims to use online learning tools to expand the reach of education so that students from deprived classes and from remote areas can also get access to educational resources. Several Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are already being offered to the students nationwide. This has resulted in the development of a new learning model which makes the use of various online platforms.

Supporting Online Education

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The Government has also implemented various initiatives that will encourage students to enrol in web-based distance learning programmes. It has also provided funding to a number of universities and colleges under the NMEICT (National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology) for offering tablets to learners at subsidised rates.

The Union Budget for 2014-15 will surely provide support to education experts and stakeholders so that the online learning sector can progress further in the nation. Different colleges and reputed online institutes are now striving to offer personalised online learning solutions for the betterment of education. These online programmes aim to help students from different part of the country to gain essential skills and build their careers.

What Do You Think?

How do you think the Union Budget for 2014-15 will affect education? Can online learning modes truly help students in remote areas to access accredited higher education programmes?