Union Budget 2020: Key highlights for Education sector
The Finance Minister of India, Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union budget 2020-21 before the parliament on February 1, 2020. Know the key highlights of the budget 2020 for the education sector below.
In the Union budget 2020 tabled today, the Union Finance Minister of India Nirmala Sitharaman proposed a number of reforms and new announcements for job creation and skill development of the young population of India. The budget highlighted the need for jobs in the market. Read below the major highlights of the budget 2020 for the education sector:
FDI and ECB in education
In the budget 2020, Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Finance Minister of India has allocated Rs 99,300 crore for the education sector. Moreover, a total of Rs 3,000 crore has been allocated for the skill development sector. In the budget, the Union Finance Minister has proposed Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in education. She also pitched for External Commercial Borrowings (ECB) in education.
Degree level full-fledged online education programme
She also announced to start a degree level full-fledged online education programme to offer quality education to students of deprived section. More than 150 higher education institutions would begin apprenticeships, as per her speech. For fresh engineers, urban local entities would offer internship opportunities for a year.
University for police and forensic
Apart from this, one university each is proposed for the police and the forensic department by the name of National Police University and National Forensic University respectively. Under PPP mode, one medical college would be attached to existing district hospitals. This would help deal with the shortage of qualified medical doctors.
Common Eligibility Test for non-gazetted government jobs
The government will implement the National Education Policy. There will be a Common Eligibility Test (CET) held for all the non-gazetted government jobs. Considering the high demand of teachers, nurses, paramedical staff and caregivers in foreign countries, the government has proposed bridge courses for providing skills to mould candidates as per the requirements of the job.
Online education by top 100 NIRF institutes
For the betterment of minorities and deprived youngsters, a degree level online education programme will be started by the top 100 NIRF institutes. The education sector has witnessed an increase of more than Rs 5,000 crore in the amount of budget allocation as compared to the last union budget. Last year, an amount of Rs 93,847 crore was allocated for the education sector.
By the year 2030, India will become a country of the most working-age population. This is why there has been a lot of emphasis on the improvement of education and it also stressed upon the need to develop skills of the youth. The Government received more than two lakh suggestions for the better of National Education Policy.
Some of the reactions on the Union Budget 2020-21:
“It is on healthy lines for education sector as Finance Minister of the country, Nirmala Sitharaman, has allocated Rs 99,300 Crore for it. In addition, Rs 3,000 Crore are for skill development along with a new education policy soon to be announced. On the allied lines, Rs 2.8 Trillion is for the agriculture sector, which is also in favour of students and youth community along with the farmers. Through such implementations, the country can grow jobs by focusing on exports, through the integration of innovative produce, assemblages in the country with the ‘Make in India’ scheme. The budget is also welcoming as it caters to the interests of all investors, farmers and, above all, the middle class. Indeed, it is aimed at boosting income and purchasing power of the people of the country.” - Mr. Ramesh Mittal, Chairman, Lovely Group
"The Finance Minister has announced a forward-looking budget that recognises the urgent need to bridge India’s skill gap by encouraging the education sector. Allowing Foreign investments and external corporate borrowings by educational institutions will provide much needed new funding sources to facilitate their growth. Further, offering full degree programmes online will enable those who cannot access regular colleges to avail of the qualifications they need to gain full employment. As education is a state subject, it is good to see that the central government is coordinating with each state to encourage the implementation of the New Education Policy at the grassroots. Additionally, new technologies are often the drivers of the economic growth of nations. Encouraging student engineers to get internships in local bodies will help in equipping them with real-world job skills required to work with, and develop these new technologies to help our country join the ranks of other developed nations." - Dr. Akhil Shahani, Managing Director, The Shahani GroupRead More:
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