The Academics for Action and Development Teachers Association (AADTA), an Aam Aadmi Party teachers’ body, has criticised the Union Budget, calling it a “document in disappointment”. “This budget is another step in the direction of dismantling public-funded universities by inflicting financial starvation. The shift to online education is disastrous for the cause of social justice in a country with a wide digital divide and learning inequality. We demand to increase the budgetary allocation on education which is an effective means of social change in our country,” the association said in a press release. Seema Das, member of Delhi University’s executive council, said, “While the teachers and students are opposing privatisation, the financial direction of this budget has drastic cut in public investment in the education sector.” Referring to a plan to “convert DU into a company named University of Delhi Foundation”, Das said, “This budget is going to strengthen such corporatisation of universities and colleges. Education will become expensive and difficult to access for socially and economically weaker sections of the society.” The Union Budget, the AADTA said, was expected to compensate for the previous year’s fund cuts for higher education institutes but “has proved to be a document in disappointment”. “Instead of raising the funds substantially, the allocation for the higher education department has followed the declining trends in 2023-24 as well, amounting to a meagre 0.97 % of (the) total budget. In 2022-23 BE (before estimate), the figure was 1.03 %. In absolute terms, the figures for allocations of higher education department 2023-24 BE and 2022-23 RE (revised estimate) are Rs 44,094 crore and Rs 40,828 crore respectively,” the AADTA statement said. AADTA also expressed disappointment in the allocations for UGC and grants to central universities by saying they “have been stagnant in nominal terms and have declined in real terms, taking a modest rate of expected inflation of 7 per cent”. The allocation for UGC is pegged at Rs 5,360 crore, an increase of Rs 229 crore (4.5 per cent) from the Rs 5,131 crore in 2022-23. Similarly, the allocation for central universities has increased from Rs 10,737 crore in 2022-23 to Rs 11,252 crore in 2023-24, a rise of Rs 515 crore (4.8%).
