New Delhi, Feb 1: To improve the quality of education and teaching in government schools, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today proposed to move gradually from “blackboard to digital board” in Union Budget 2018. For the Education sector, the finance minister also announced an integrated B.Ed programme for teachers to improve the quality of their teaching. “We now propose to treat education holistically without segmentation from pre-nursery to Class 12,” Jaitley announced.
Before announcing the Budget 2018 allocation to the Education sector, the finance minister said, “We have managed to get children to School but the quality of education is still a cause of serious concern. We have now defined learning outcomes and National Survey of more than 20 lakh children has been conducted to assess the status on the ground.” (Click here to read Budget 2018 highlights)
BUDGET 2018 ALLOCATION TO EDUCATION
The government has amended the Right to Education Act to enable more than 13 lakh untrained teachers to get trained.
The government proposed to increase the digital intensity in education and move gradually from ‘‘black board’’ to ‘‘digital board’’.
Technology will also be used to upgrade the skills of teachers through the recently launched digital portal ‘‘DIKSHA’’.
By the year 2022, every block with more than 50% ST population and at least 20,000 tribal persons, will have an Ekalavya Model Residential School.
Ekalavya schools will be on par with Navodaya Vidyalayas and will have special facilities for preserving local art and culture besides providing training in sports and skill development.
Jaitley announced “Revitalising Infrastructure and Systems in Education (RISE) by 2022” initiative with a total investment of Rs 1,00,000 crore in next four years.
Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA) would be suitably structured for funding this initiative.
Setting up of a specialized Railways University at Vadodara.
Two new full-fledged Schools of Planning and Architecture. Apart from that, 18 new SPAs would be established in the IITs and NITs as autonomous Schools.
The Government has proposed to launch the “Prime Minister’s Research Fellows (PMRF)” Scheme this year. The scheme would identify 1,000 11 best B.Tech students each year and provide them facilities to do Ph.D in IITs and IISc, with a handsome fellowship.