Need for big reforms in education.

Budget roadmap for New Education Policy; major reforms

Budget will meet aspirations of all stakeholders: HRD Minister

Agency Report | New Delhi | 6 July, 2019 | 11:10 PM

The Union Budget has laid down a roadmap for the National Education Policy (NEP), which is currently in its draft form. Prepared by a panel headed by eminent space scientist K Kasturirangan, the NEP seeks to address the challenges of access, equity, quality, affordability, and accountability faced by the current education system.

In her budget speech, the Finance Minister assured that the government will bring in a new National Education Policy to transform India’s higher education system into one of the global best education systems. The new policy proposes major changes in both school and higher education among others, better governance systems and brings greater focus on research and innovation, she said.

The draft Policy provides for reforms at all levels of education from school to higher education. It seeks to increase the focus on early childhood care, reform the current exam system, strengthen teacher training, and restructure the education regulatory framework. It also seeks to set up a National Education Commission, increase public investment in education, strengthen the use of technology and increase focus on vocational and adult education, among others.

One of the recommendations made by the draft NEP is to constitute a National Research Fund (NRF) to bolster research in the country. The recommendation found a mention in the Finance minister’s speech as she announced setting up of the NRF to fund, coordinate and promote research in the country.

“The NRF will ensure that the overall research eco-system in the country is strengthened with focus on identified thrust areas relevant to our national priorities and towards basic science without duplication of effort and expenditure. The funds available with all Ministries will be integrated in NRF and would be adequately supplemented with additional funds,” Sitharaman said in her speech.

The draft policy has recommended setting up of NRF “through an Act of Parliament, as an autonomous body of the Government of India, to fund, mentor, incentivize, and build capacity for quality research across the country in all disciplines, primarily at universities and colleges, both public and private. Appropriate infrastructure and a trained staff will be provided to enable it to fulfil its mission”.

According to the draft policy, the NRF will consist of four major divisions — Sciences; Technology; Social Sciences; and Arts and Humanities – with the provision to add additional divisions. In addition to directly funding the outstanding research proposals, the NRF is recommended to “help seed centres of research in select disciplines at various universities, through providing institutional funding, bringing in research mentors as well as postdoctoral and doctoral students to grow an ecosystem for research at institutions where it currently does not exist or is limited”.
Union Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ has expressed his gratitude to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for giving priority to education sector. He said that the aspirations of all stakeholders in education sector would be met by this budget.

He expressed his happiness over the increased allocation of Rs 9,843.64 crore to the education sector from last year. Total allocation for the education sector has been increased from Rs 85,010 crore in 2018-19 to 94,853.64 crore in 2019-20.

Apart from this, the government has made available Rs 15,000 crore through extra-budgetary resources using the Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA) mechanism. It has provided an additional equity of Rs 2,100 crore to the HEFA to enable it to mobilise the required funds for building high quality infrastructure in higher educational institutions.

The Minister also lauded the creation of the National Research Foundation (NRF), which, he said, would play a key role in coordinating the research of all the ministries.

At Rs 38,317 crore, the allocation for higher education has witnessed an increase of 9.4 per cent compared to the last financial year. Apart from this, there has been an overall increase of Rs 6422.88 crore (12.81 per cent) in the budget allocation of Department of School Education and Literacy this year.

An amount of Rs 400 crore has been provided to create ‘world class institutions’ in the field of education which is more than three times the revised estimates for the previous year. (IANS)