The union budget is to be announced this week. What are the expectations of education industry from the post GST budget is observed by Beas Dev Ralhan, CEO & Co-founder, Next Education India Pvt Ltd for Elets news Network (ENN).
With this year’s budget around the corner, the education sector is looking forward to the attention it truly deserves. Firstly, it is expected that government will increase the outlay for the education sector to 6% of the GDP.
Secondly, It’s a known fact that development of technological infrastructure is a prerequisite for imparting quality education. To achieve this, the government should first take proper measures to utilise the existing technologies and infrastructure available in schools. In fact, this expectation is aligned to the recent promise made by the Finance Minister that this year’s budget would focus on infrastructural development.
Thirdly, the government should formulate policies and allocate adequate amount of money in the budget to initiate skill development in early learners as an early start will be more effective. Presently, most of the skill development initiatives are aimed at graduate and postgraduate students.
Fourthly, there is also a need to earmark a substantial part of the budget for teacher-training programmes. The government can enter into a partnership with private players to train teachers on the latest pedagogies and the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools to ensure that teachers are abreast with the latest developments. Besides, there is a need to ensure fair remuneration for teachers because only then will they be motivated enough to fulfil their duties diligently.
