Union budget 2022-2023: What does it have in store for students?
Today, Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, Nirmala Sitharaman, introduced the Union Budget for the year 2022-23 that has, to a large extent, focussed on the growth and development of the education sector. The education sector has been long suffering due to the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in the closure of schools and colleges and the loss of formal education. To top it all, there were constant technological and economic challenges. Keeping these factors in mind, in this year’s Union budget, the education sector has been allocated a budget of 104,278 crore, which is higher than the last year’s amount by Rs 11,054 crore. The funds allocated for the Department of School Education is Rs 63449.37 crore which is also higher than last year’s revised estimate of Rs 51969.95 crore. Here is what it has for students.
A new digital university
The Union Budget 2022-23 has proposed the formation of a new digital university as part of the central government’s NEP 2020 initiative. The objective behind the setting up this digital university is to provide world-class education, digital infrastructure and skill-based training to Indian students. The approach of this digital university will be to grant students across the country access to quality education and personalised learning experiences from the comforts of their homes.
This will be set up based on the networked hub and spoke model. This is a distribution model in which the primary things originate at a central ‘hub’ and then spread across smaller locations or ‘spokes’ for final implementation. Here, the ‘hub’ will be some of the best and popular public/centralised universities across India, while the ‘spokes’ will be students who will have access to the knowledge (in several regional languages) generated by the hubs through digital mediums. The digital university will also be built as per ISTE standards, that uses cutting-edge information and communication technology as the primary means of teaching and learning.
Emphasis on education through regional languages
Apart from the establishment of digital university, the Union budget also included the ‘One Class, One TV Channel’ programme. It is part of the Prime Minister’s e-Vidya initiative, based on the motto ‘One Nation, One Digital Platform.’ The ‘One Class, One TV Channel’ programme aims to provide supplementary education opportunities in different regional languages to students across India to make up for the loss of formal education during the pandemic. As part of this initiative, the number of TV channels (SWAYAM PRABHA TV) currently involved in imparting education to students of classes I to XII will be expanded from 12 to 200. This expansion will fulfil one of the key initiatives in the NEP 2020: Providing education in vernacular languages in order to help students learn better. This will also include setting up of new e-learning content delivering platforms that will not only be launched on TV cable, but also across the internet and smartphones to enhance learning in semi-urban and rural areas.
Focus on agriculture and life skill-based education
Besides focussing on the development of regional language education and establishment of digital university, the Union budget has also emphasised on the immediate need to revise the syllabus of agri-education by the agricultural universities. The aim is to fulfil the needs of modern-day agriculture, like natural, zero-budget and organic farming. Other than these, skill development courses are also to be introduced across the state ITIs (Industrial Training Institutes) alongside establishment of foreign universities in the recently built Gujarat International Finance Tech-City (GIFT City). Here, other skill-based courses such as financial management and fin-tech will be introduced.