New Delhi (India), 6th Feb 2023: Ten News Live recently organised a show on ‘Budget 2023: Way forward for Education Sector’, which was hosted by Dr Rudresh Pandey, Professor of Marketing at IMS Ghaziabad and consulting editor at Ten News Network.
The guest for the discussion was Dr Harivansh Chaturvedi, Director of BIMTECH, who highlighted many important aspects of education both on school level as well as higher education.
The Indian education sector saw a boost in the recent Budget 2023, with a total allocation of 1,12,000 crore rupees. 60% of the allocation will go towards school education while 40% will be used for higher education. The budget also announced the establishment of 100 labs in engineering colleges for developing 5G technology and a digital library for school-going children, consisting of government-approved books. In addition, the government has promised to recruit 38,000 teachers and support staff for tribal area schools and focus on multi-disciplinary courses in the field of medicine.
The finance minister also spoke about making Artificial Intelligence work for India and the PM Kaushal Vikas Yojna 4.0 for skill development, which includes training in technology, coding, and robotics. The aim of the unified Skill India program is to provide skills based on demand.
Dr Harivansh Chaturvedi, Director of BIMTECH emphasized that the education sector’s needs cannot be met unless 6% of GDP is spent and the current budget allocation is still not enough to achieve these goals. He also noted that despite an increase of 8% in the total budget, the 44,000 crore rupee allocation for higher education is insufficient and mostly goes to central institutions, leaving private institutions with very little.
Dr. Chaturvedi pointed out that technology is the solution to education related challenges but the main obstacle is the lack of basic skills and access to electricity and technology in remote areas. “Training programs for teachers to learn how to use technology in education and replacing the outdated infrastructure in higher education institutions is important. In management education, the pace of change is faster due to the autonomous nature of the institution,” he said, while suggesting that shared libraries, labs must be established to maximize their use.
In conclusion, Dr. Chaturvedi and Dr. Pandey agreed that budget 2023 has taken positive steps towards the education sector, but much more needs to be done to achieve the desired results. The government and private sectors must work together to provide quality education to all citizens and overcome the barriers to the implementation of technology in education.
