Education Sector Budget 2021 Expectations: NEP, Loan Rebates & More - What The Education Sector Expects From FM Sitharaman

Education Sector Union Budget 2021 Expectations: With the central government set to announce the Union Budget 2021 next month, here are some of the expectations the education sector holds:

Nirmala Sitharaman

This year’s Union Budget to be presented on February 1 will be quite different. Firstly it’s going to be a paperless budget, and secondly it will be chalked out in times of global pandemic. The Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has already termed 2021 Budget to be like none before even though earlier budgets were presented in economic downturns including the 2008 financial crisis.

Owing to the Coronavirus pandemic, the entire year went on focusing on online education however the Education sector also received a tremendous push with the introduction of the National Education Policy (NEP).

Now with the central government set to discuss the Union Budget 2021 next month, here are some of the expectations the education sector holds:

Technology to support education: With students and teachers spending most of the year indoors dur to the Corona induced pandemic, the scenario has shown a real need for implementing technology in education. It is high time to let all the students, teachers and academic professions access the technology with affordability. A Structured framework designed in a manner to support ed-tech is the real need of the hour which much be considered in this year's budget.

Rural education: The Covid-19 pandemic left millions of students struggling to cope up with the classes due to unavailability of resources in the rural areas as they rely heavily on traditional school structures. Due to this, the mid-day meal schemes were affected severely. As the centre prepares for the budget, it may consider the precarious conditions of the rural students. The focus should be on hundred per cent enrolment of each child at every community level. Besides primary educations, government could set aside grants for fuelling research-based degree programmes and specialized laboratories across institutions in tier-2 & tier-3 cities.

NEP 2020:  This year’s budget will set the pace for implementing National Education Policy 2020. Sufficient fund allocation to NEP's and empowering the Central and State level bodies is one of the key expectations from budget 2021 for the educational sector.

Relaxing education loans: With time, the Education sector is gradually recovering from the pandemic. The schools are preparing to get back to the track with newer admissions and entrance examinations. Considering the scenario, the sector expects government to take into account the relaxation in the interest rates of student education loans.