In addition to digital universities, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her budget speech announced that five institutions would be recognized as centers of excellence on urban planning and AICTE would lead developing curriculum for them, world-class foreign universities. Allowed to offer programs in financial management, fintech, science, technology, engineering and mathematics, free from domestic regulations.
The pandemic and its impact on education and mitigation strategy continued to be the focus of the 2022-23 budget, as the minister acknowledged that schools, children, especially in rural areas, and children belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and other vulnerable sections remain closed. Doing. , having lost almost two years of formal education. “Mostly, these are children from government schools. We understand the need to provide complementary learning and create a flexible mechanism for education delivery.
“For this purpose, PM eVIDYA’s ‘One Class-One TV Channel’ program will be expanded from 12 to 200 TV channels. This will enable all states to provide supplementary education in regional languages for classes 1-12,” Sitaraman said.
The proposed digital university will be set up to provide access to world class quality universal education with personalized learning experience at the doorsteps of students across the country. It will be made available in various Indian languages and ICT formats, the minister said.
“The university will be built on a network hub-spoke model, with the hub building state-of-the-art ICT expertise. The best public universities and institutions of the country will collaborate as a network of hub-spokes,” Sitharaman said.
The increased allocation for the education sector led to an emphasis on digital methods of learning to address the learning losses in the last two years.
The Minister proposed 75 skill e-labs for simulated learning environment in 2022-23 to promote critical thinking skills and give room for creativity. Sitharaman said that Desh-Stack e-portal, a digital ecosystem for skills and livelihoods, will be launched to empower citizens to skill, skill or upskill through online training.
“High quality e-content in all spoken languages will be developed for distribution through internet, mobile phones, TV and radio through digital teachers. A competitive mechanism will be put in place for development of quality e-content by teachers to equip them with digital tools of teaching and facilitate better learning outcomes.
Taking to social media, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan lauded the FM and PM for their “bold, futuristic, development-oriented and pro-people budget”, saying, “Digital University, 200 TV Channels under e-Vidya, Digital Ecosystem for Skilling, The digital currency and many other path-breaking initiatives in the #AatmanirbharBharatKaBudget present a modern, pioneering and practical blueprint to drive India into the nectar of times.”
The FM announced that to develop India-specific knowledge in urban planning and design and provide certified training in these areas, five existing educational institutions in different sectors will be designated as Centers of Excellence.
“These centers will be provided an endowment fund of Rs 250 crore each. In addition, AICTE will take the lead in improving the curricula, quality and accessibility of urban planning courses in other institutions.
The school education outlay for 2022-23 is Rs 63,449.37 crore, an increase of about Rs 9,000 crore over 2021-22. The country’s largest school education scheme, the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan, has been allocated Rs 37,383.36, an increase of over Rs 6,000 crore from Budget 2021.
There has been an increase in funds for Kendriya Vidyalayas and Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas. Kendriya Vidyalayas got Rs 7,650 crore and Navodaya Vidyalayas got Rs 4,115 crore for the next financial year.
The Center has allocated Rs 40,828 crore to the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education for the next financial year, an increase of 6.6% over the current fiscal. In 2021-22, the budget of the Higher Education Department was Rs 38,350.65 crore and was further reduced to Rs 36,031.57 in the Revised Estimates.
Vidya Yeravdekar, Principal Director, Symbiosis Society, said, “This time there is a lot of emphasis on digital. Natural, zero-budget and organic farming, states will be encouraged to revise the curriculum of agricultural universities to meet the needs of modern agriculture. PM eVIDYA’s One Class, One TV Channel program will be expanded from 12 to 200 TV channels. This will enable all the states to provide supplementary education in regional languages from class 1 to 12. A digital university can function optimally only when connectivity and bandwidth are optimal in rural areas.
According to Surabhi Goel, CEO, Aditya Birla Education Academy, Aditya Birla World Academy, “With the theme of digitisation, the budget has emphasized the importance of training teachers to improve hybrid learning outcomes, especially since students Heavy learning has suffered. Interval due to pandemic. We are in line with the announcement as Aditya Birla Education Academy is at the forefront of designing curriculum to help the country’s teachers enhance their skills and bridge the gaps when students return to school in 2022. ,
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