Budget 2018: Education sector to get a boost by up to 14%

The increased budget is expected to benefit 250 million students in 1.5 million schools across the country

The education sector is slated to get the much-needed boost with school education expected to get a rise by upto 14% in the last full budget of the Modi government before the general elections. The increased budgetary allocation will be utilised for accelerating schemes which are already up and running, as well for quality improvement Livemint reported on Tuesday.  

Budget allocation for the school sector in 2018 budget was Rs 463.56 billion.

Quoting two officials requesting anonymity, Livemint reported that the Mid-day mean scheme and Right to Education are likely to get higher allocation then the previous year.

School assessment like the national assessment survey, innovation in schools and mapping of learning outcomes are expected to be mentioned in the Finance Minister’s Budget speech on February 1.

One of the two officials said that, “It will be much less than what the ministry demanded, but higher than the previous year’s allocations in the range of 11-14%,”.

The industry has for long demanded expenditure on education to be 6 per cent of the GDP, however, India spends roughly 4 per cent of GDP on the education sector.  

The increased budget is expected to benefit nearly 250 million students studying in 1.5 million schools across the country. 

A plan to map the learning outcome of students in districts is being worked out by the National Council for Education Research and Training (NCERT) and those districts which will be found lagging will be given an additional financial boost from a portion of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.

The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan which has achieved 100 per cent enrolment will shift its focus on teaching-learning outcomes.

Programs meant to monitor the education sector and schools, the National Assessment Survey, which got a meagre Rs 10 million in the previous fiscal, might end up getting a hike in this budget.

“By next financial year, the SSA may be spending around 40 per cent of its budget on improving quality of school learning,” another official said.