Budget 2018: Increase education expenditure to 6% of GDP

The Recent Union Budget of 2018 is very farmer friendly,and few sectors like education have gained a lot of budget allocation. The PM of the country is duly interested in educating the masses. The recent book launch on how to ace the exams for students penned by the PM himself shows that how his cadre is interested in making animpact on the education sector of the country. The delegates in the education industry seem to be happy. Still, there are some recommendations to increase the expenditure further.

The Union Budget 2018 and Education Sector:

The following are some of the schemes with their allocations in the budget:

• SARV SikshaAbhiyan(SSA):

This scheme was intended to provide free and compulsory education to children aged between 6 to 14 years of age under the Right to Education Act.

This scheme will now be extended from pre-primary up to Class 12. This is to prevent a large number of school drop-outs that seems to be very common in the Higher Secondary Schooling. The total budget allocated to the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development that has the Department of School Education and literacy and the Department of Higher Education is Rs 85, 500 crores. This is more than Rs 13,800 crore from last year.

• Eklavya Schools on par with NavodayaVidyalaya:

To provide education to the tribal in their local environment itself, Eklavya Schools will be set up at every block with at least 20, 000 tribal people and the 50% of the population should be under the Scheduled Tribe sector.

• Revitalizing Infrastructure and Systems in Education(RISE):

Under this model of funding, the Central Universities can borrow up to 1000 crorein the next four years.

• Government Institutes:

Proposal to set up two schools of architecture and planning, 18 autonomous institutes in the Indian Institute of Technology(IITs') and National Institute of Technology(NITs').

• Higher Education Funding Agency(HEFA):

Under this, the centrally funded institutes like IIMs', IITs,' NITs,' IITs' and Central Universities can obtain grants for building new infrastructure.

Recommendations for the Education Sector from experts:

The experts suggest that the Education Sector of India in comparison with the other countries of the BRICS is lagging behind regarding GDP. Thus, to stand forth amongst the BRICS nations, the country has to increase expenditure to increase infrastructure quality, research funding and asset management.

Thus, the government of India can listen to the recommendations and furthermore work to increase the quality and quantity of education in India.