The announcement of the budget every year by the Finance Minister is a major event, which is generally followed by praise, criticism, expression of opinion by experts and generally public interaction. Since it is essentially a financial statement documenting the record of revenue and expenditure envisaged by the government, the most obvious indicator of a government’s intention to operate in any sector is the budgetary allocation earmarked for it.
Although in a nutshell. I will present the main features of Budget 2022 With regard to education, I do not focus on commenting on the implications of budgetary allocation for different areas of education. My attempt here is to present the state’s vision of education, the envisaged meaning, educational gaps and the strategies identified to address them, as outlined in the budget.
This year the budgetary provision for education has been increased by 11.86 percent as compared to last year. The areas to which resources have been allocated in education are: Department of School Education and Literacy, Department of Higher Education and for holistic education to create exemplary schools that will provide quality education. Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) and Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti (NVS) have also increased the budget. As is known, KVS and NVS are special schools for the children of Central Government employees and gifted children of rural areas respectively.
Apart from the usual provisions, a digital university has been proposed to provide access to world class quality education to all the students with personalized learning experience at their doorstep. There is a belief that being digital is at par with world class with the ability to offer a personalized learning experience. Needless to say, it needs to be investigated. It is also proposed to set up 750 virtual labs in science and maths to promote critical critical thinking skills among children. There are plans to improve digital infrastructure in rural areas under which DTH access to Doordarshan and educational channels will be provided for villages in the northern regions.
The budget also focuses on skill development and vocational education; development and availability of content through various media such as online, television and radio; PM e-VIDYA program to be expanded from 12 to 200 TV channels; To facilitate skill development in the financial services sector, teachers will be trained to teach with digital tools and free from domestic regulations to set up a world-class foreign university in Gandhinagar.
The education budget, however, also exhibits some of the obvious gaps reported in India today. As the budget for education has increased in absolute terms, public investment in education is nowhere near the 6 per cent of GDP set by the National Education Policy 2020. The Samagra Shiksha Yojana – which saw a major shortfall last year – could not make up for it despite an increase in allocation this year over last year’s budget. Sectors that have seen less or equal allocation as last year include teacher training, adult education, scholarships for scheduled tribe girls from rural areas and the mid-day meal scheme.
It cannot be denied that the budget reflects the priorities and overall intent of the government. Although financial needs are an integral and fundamental variable for the development of any sector, there is no direct relationship between more finance and the greater good for the sector and the people benefiting from it.
Steps taken in any way in the last two years, including measures taken to compensate school closed And the learning loss, and the desperation to find alternative methods of assessing students remind me of a quote from the famous Yashpal Committee report, which stated: “Much is being taught but little is learned or understood.” “. This means that although there may seem to be a lot of work being done in schools – such as copying from textbook to blackboard, copying from blackboard to notebook, giving homework and conducting exams – no one is sure that any learning will take place. and what that learning really means. Similarly, a lot of schemes and programs are launched every year, but what difference do they make in providing equal, equal and quality education to all, irrespective of where they come from, is a question that is largely So far unanswered.
The general character of school education in our country is isolated. The colonial system of education invalidated local knowledge, culture and language and instead applied the Western model of knowledge and culture. This affected academic transactions in the classroom as they had to be done in English, which neither the teacher nor the student knew. Throughout the lockdown period, the main concern of schools continued to transact curriculum in a new language that relied on ICT (Information and Communication Technology). Another cause of concern was the pressure to conduct the exam. No one was concerned with the apprehension and worry that children were grappling with or how to make education more relevant in the contemporary context of students’ lives and concerns.
The pandemic changed the lives of so many people but the education system continued to equate information with knowledge with its earlier understanding of education. Similarly, if one looks at the semantics of budget, one can see the use of words like reach and delivery. Which means we are comparing education with providing some information to the students is delivered in a unilateral manner where there is little agency of the student. Online platforms came in handy during COVID-19 when schools were physically closed but understanding online learning as a better option would be fatal for the future and the dreams and aspirations of so many students who want to move up the social ladder.
There is no point in focusing on creating islands of excellence or exemplary schools in a country that must now move towards providing equal quality education to all. Some model schools, KVs, NVs will always benefit a small proportion of the population. Instead of creating layers in a divided education system that caters to the different needs of different socio-economic groups, this obsession with serving the needs of a small privileged minority must be stopped.
The focus of the budget is on digitization of education and giving more such options to the children. Neither the knowledge of education nor the pots full of information to the children are empty. Research has shown what a digital divide has arisen in children’s lives. We cannot see digital education as a substitute, a stopgap arrangement or even as a complement to offline education. An excessive focus on digital education can be fatal in a country whose education system is already divided to suit its divided social fabric.
The author is Professor and Dean, School of Education, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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