PremiumThe education sector has high hopes from the Union Budget of 2023-24 anticipating a focused approach toward making education aligned with future-readiness. Mint spoke to some of the experts to know about their expectations from Union Budget 2023
Ankita Dabas, Chief Growth Officer, Veative Group
As promoters of technology in education, we certainly pin our hopes on the upcoming budget to provide avenues for bridging the gap between education and employment. While we are making earnest efforts to make quality digital education more accessible, we look forward to substantial budget allocation to train education professionals in the use of VR and AR for education and empower teachers with the tools and know-how for the effective implementation of technology in classrooms.
Lejo Sam Oommen is MD, ETS India
Driven by a young demographic, India is fast becoming a talent pool for the world. The Government aspires to have 25% of global workforce to be Indian by 2047 and therefore early-stage exposure to Internationalization is key to meeting this objective. The Union budget 2023 outlay must provision for ‘Internationalization’ at State and Central Government Universities, while also making India a destination for foreign students. Exchange programmes between global institutions and Indian universities will augur well for learners who are presently devoid of international exposure.
Tarun Arora is the Chief Executive Officer & Founder of Knimbus
The Budget of 2023 comes nearly in tandem with the roll out of the New National Education Policy, and therefore the Government will be using this opportunity to accelerate some of the foundational principles of NEP 2020 which are Access, Equity, Quality, Affordability, and Accountability. Given that Digital driven access is the key theme of NEP 2020, Government should encourage setting up of a Digital Library ecosystem that can work in conjunction with Digital Universities that are being planned. Such digital content repositories will not just aid learners, but also support institutions and educators with classroom learning given ease of access to curated and authentic content
Anish Srikrishna, CEO, TimesPro
In the Indian Higher Education and H.EdTech sector, affordability and accessibility are critical factors. We anticipate that taxes on educational programmes will be reduced significantly from the current 18%. This will ease the burden of millions of learners seeking a better future through skilling and upskilling programmes, thereby influencing employability and employment. We hope that the government will encourage greater private participation in its digitization efforts, especially where it concerns professional learning and skill based education. Industry partnerships with learning institutions can help to bridge the industry academia divide and steer our young population towards job readiness.
Roopali Mehra, Founder of Mytransform
Education allocation in Union Budgets have conventionally steered towards brick-and-mortar set-ups designed to impact classroom learning and teaching. In the NEP year, given the strong focus of digital to drive both reach and equity, Govt. must focus on career awareness to drive employability. About 50% of India’s population is below 25 years and for this segment to make India a talent powerhouse, it must have the right tools for informed career decision-making and engagement. Provisioning for such tools, albeit with a public private partnership model, within an institution will enable informed decision-making skills in youth.