Budget 2017: IITs corner over 40 per cent of higher education increase

The school education budget went up by 6 per cent, with Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan getting Rs 23,500 crore as against Rs 22,500 crore last year. Allocation for the midday meal scheme went up from Rs 9,700 crore to Rs 10,000 crore. In 2015, the government slashed the budget for this scheme from Rs 13,215 crore to Rs 9,236 crore. In 2016, when only Rs 9,700 crore was provided, the HRD Ministry had protested and sought Rs 2,200 crore more. The Finance Ministry did not relent at the time of finalising revised estimates.

“Last year, the scheme didn’t get a single penny more, because of which the Centre couldn’t build additional kitchen sets and increase honorarium for cooks. The midday meal cooks have been working for Rs 1,000 a month since 2009. There was a three-month delay in revising cooking costs by 7.5 per cent,” said a source.

Interestingly, most of the education-related announcements made by Jaitley while presenting the Union budget on Wednesday had little or no financial implications.

The government announced its intention of setting up a National Testing Service (NTS), which will be an independent body dedicated to conducting all entrance tests for higher education, on the lines of the Educational Testing Service in the US. The HRD Ministry has already moved a Cabinet note on this. NTS, according to officials, will only need a one-time capital grant of Rs 50 crore.

Jaitley also announced restructuring of the University Grants Commission, autonomy for good colleges, thrust on outcome-based learning in schools and launch of the Swayam platform with at least 350 online courses. Swayam already had a soft launch last year and is not a new education scheme or programme. Jaitley had allocated Rs 75 crore for this last year. According to sources, the remaining announcements are not expected to cost much to the exchequer.