Budget 2019: education sector gets big boost

​New Delhi: The Centre Friday earmarked Rs 93,847.64 crore for the education sector for 2019-20, an increase of over 10 per cent from last budget allocation. While Rs 37,461.01 crore has been allocated for higher education, an amount of Rs 56,386.63 crore has been earmarked for school education. Last year, then finance minister Arun Jaitley had allocated Rs 85,010 crore for the education sector. 

Presenting an interim budget for 2019-20 in Parliament on Friday, Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Piyush Goyal proposed the launch of a scheme named 'Revitalising Infrastructure and Systems in Education (RISE) by 2022' with a total investment of Rs 1 lakh crore in the next four years to step up investments in research and related infrastructure in premier educational institutions, including health institutions. The government allocated Rs 608.87 crore for research and innovation, a massive increase from previous allocation of Rs 350.23 crore. 

Goyal also proposed the setting up of two new full-fledged 'Schools of Planning and Architecture' (SPA) to be selected on challenge mode. Additionally, 18 new SPAs would be established in the IITs and NITs as autonomous schools, also on challenge mode, he said. "The proposal for setting up SPAs have been appraised by the Expenditure Finance Committee. Directors of IITs/NITs and Chief Secretaries of States/UTs have been requested to submit proposals," the minister said. Goyal said technology will be the biggest driver in improving the quality of education and proposed to increase the digital intensity in education and move gradually from "black board" to "digital board". 

A dedicated digital infrastructure for teachers, DIKSHA, has been developed with the aim to empower school teachers with access to innovative tech-based solutions, he said. "Technology will also be used to upgrade the skills of teachers through the recently launched digital portal 'Diksha'. "A committee has been set up by the Department of Higher Education to work out the modalities to support 'Operation Digital Board' in all schools and to provide quality education by effective use of technology and telecom services," the minister said.