The finance minister also announced that Rs 400 crore will be provided to the world-class institutions. (Designed by Gargi Singh)Union Budget 2019: Presenting the Union Budget 2019, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the Narendra Modi government will bring in a new national education policy which will focus on higher education.
Sitharaman said the government is focused on promoting research and proposed to set-up a national research foundation which will assimilate research grants from various ministries. She said India has the potential to become an educational hub and thereby proposes ‘Study in India’ programme to attract foreign students.
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The finance minister also announced that Rs 400 crore will be provided to the world-class institutions. Further, in its commitment to encourage sports education, the NDA government will set-up the National Sports Education Board under Khelo India scheme. To make youth job-ready, the government announced 10 million youth to take up industry-relevant skill training under the Kaushal Vikas Yojana.
Read | Budget 2019 needs to have a holistic view on where education in India needs to go
Sitharaman, in her speech, also underlined the importance of new-age skills like robotics, artificial intelligence and data science.
In the Economic survey 2018-19 released yesterday mentioned the number of elementary school-going children has vastly declined in all major states in the country.
The survey notes that as of 2016, the population of those in the 5-14 age-group, which roughly corresponds to the number of elementary school-going children, has already begun declining across all major states except Jammu and Kashmir.
In light of the projected decline in elementary school-going children, the survey said, the number of schools per capita will rise significantly in India across all major states even if no more schools are added.
Last year, the government also put a focus on education by increasing the allocation to Rs 1.38 lakh crore for 2018-19 from Rs 1.22 lakh crore. The then finance minister Arun Jaitley had said the government managed to get children to school but the quality of education remains a concern. He said education has to be treated holistically without segmentation from nursery to class 12.
