Budget may not have a sixer, but has many boundaries, says Ninad Karpe, MD & CEO of Aptech. Karpe seems delighted with the Government’s proposal to set up a student Financial Aid Authority to administer and monitor scholarships as well as educational loan schemes, through the Pradhan Mantri Vidya Lakshmi Karyakram.

Meghna Ghai Puri, President of Whistling Woods International, too, gives the budget an ‘almost’ thumbs up for the launch of the National Skills Mission, which will consolidate skill initiatives spread across several ministries. “The education industry was looking forward to support skill development, and the ₹1,500-crore allocation for the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Grameen Kaushal Yojana is a welcome move,” said Meghna Ghai Puri, President, Whistling Woods.

The disbursement of funds will be through a digital voucher directly into qualified students’ bank accounts.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitely has allocated ₹68,968 crore for education, marginally higher than last year’s ₹68,728 crore.  

Several new institutions have also been proposed this year. An IIT will be set up in Karnataka and Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, will be upgraded to a full-fledged IIT. New All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) will be set up in Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh and Assam. Another AIIMS like institution will be set up in Bihar.

“The Finance Minister’s intent to provide one major central institute in each state will help raise students’ aspiration levels and provide them more opportunities across the country in a functional area of their choice,” said E Abraham SJ, Director, XLRI, Jamshedpur. “However, the long-term pipeline of qualified faculty to teach in all the new central institutes is equally important.”

A post-graduate institute of Horticulture Research & Education will be set up in Amritsar. Three new National Institutes of Pharmaceutical Education and Research will be set up in Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Chattisgarh and one institute of Science and Education Research will be opened in Nagaland and Odisha each. IIMs will be setup in Jammu & Kashmir and Andhra Pradesh.

School assessment

The budget also promises to start a school assessment programme and aims to infuse new training tools and initiatives to motivate teachers. 

Though the budget has garnered positive response from the education sector largely, it was disappointing to see no consideration in exempting tax on non-degree-education/vocational education and vocational training, said Ghai of Whistling Woods. “Levying service tax on such educational activities is detrimental to the proliferation of up-skilling the country,” she said.

Deepak Mehrotra, MD of Pearson India, also feels budget lacks clarity on the question of private investment in education and doesn’t provide fiscal incentives to attract private sector investment in the education sector.

“Loans for skill development and other high-end job-oriented training continue to be an issue not addressed yet,” said Ajay Chhangani, CEO of Rise India. “The budget did not address the expectation of education reforms. So school education and higher education will continue to have investment challenges.”

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