Rs 99,300 crore for education sector in 2020-21, says FM

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday proposed a total outlay of Rs 99,300 crore for the education sector in 2020-21 and Rs 3,000 crore for skill development.

"By 2030, India is set to have the largest working-age population in the world. We propose a total outlay of Rs 99,300 crore for the education sector in 2020-21 and Rs 3,000 crore for skill development," said Sitharaman while presenting the budget.

Sitharaman announced that about 150 higher educational institutions will start apprenticeship embedded degree and diploma courses by March 2020-21 to improve the employability of students in the general stream.

While the government will also start a program whereby urban local bodies across the country would provide internship opportunities to fresh engineers for a period of up to one year, the National Skill Development Agency (NDS) will give special thrust to infrastructure-focused skill development opportunities, the Minister said.

Stating that a '150 higher educational institutions will be announced soon, she said: "Steps will be taken to enable sourcing external commercial borrowings and Foreign direct investment to ensure a greater inflow of finance to attract talented teachers, innovate and build better labs."

She said degree level full-fledged online education program will be started to provide quality education to students of deprived sections of the society as well as those who do not have access to higher education.

The online education program will be offered only by institutions that are ranked within the top 100 in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF).

Observing that India should be a preferred destination for higher education, she said: "An Ind-SAT exam under the "Study in India" program is proposed to be held in Asian and African countries for benchmarking foreign candidates who receive scholarships for studying in Indian higher education centers."

In order to meet the requirement of qualified medical doctors, the Finance Minister proposed to attach a medical college to an existing district hospital in public-private partnership (PPP) model.

Sitharaman stated that a huge demand exists for teachers, nurses, paramedical staff and caregivers abroad.

"In view of this, special bridge courses may be designed jointly by the Ministries of Health and Skill Development along with professional bodies to match the employer's standards as well as meet the language requirements of various countries", she added.

A national police university and a national forensic science university have also been proposed in the domain of policing science, forensic science and cyber-forensics in the budget.