Budget 2021: What's in store for education this year?

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is all set to deliver Union Budget 2021 on February 1.  This year, experts are expecting higher allocation for education . The upcoming Union Budget will be the first one after the introduction of the National Education Policy 2020.  Here are the broad expectations for this sector.

Strategic implementation of NEP

Ensuring sufficient fund allocation to NEP and empowering the Central and State level bodies.

Relaxing education loans

The high-interest rates of Education loans deter the students and families to opt for a course of their interest. We at Financepeer witnessed a tremendous number of enquiries from parents during lockdown for zero per cent interest education loans. This was truly alarming. As the Education sector is gradually recovering from the pandemic in terms of newer admissions and entrance examinations, we expect the government to consider relaxation in the interest rates of student education loans.

Promoting AI and other technologies in education

With digital learning and blended learning being the game-changer for Education, we expect strong support from the government on promoting AI and other technologies. Although the pandemic gave a push to digital learning, there is no looking back now. To keep the sector abreast with technological advancements, efforts are required to give an impetus to Artificial Intelligence and other emerging technologies.

Strengthening the educational institutes

Educational institutes are the backbone of India and the future of students depends on these institutes. The pandemic saw the closure of a lot of educational institutes due to a fund crunch. Taking that as an example to go forward, we expect the government to strengthen these institutes and provide support through various initiatives.

Focus on holistic development of students

The NEP focuses on flexibility in the entire career and learning aspiration of the students through optional subjects from any stream and focuses on extra-curricular activities. There is a need to strengthen and elaborate the Policy further for better implementation at the grass-root level.

Better infrastructure to support online learning

With online learning getting the required push, it is important that the edtech platforms and their range of offerings reach the remotest areas. We expect the government to take measures towards building better infrastructure and uninterrupted internet services to support online learning.

Higher budgetary allocation

Although the introduction of NEP is in the right direction. We expect the government to give special attention to the education sector through higher budgetary allocation, which will give the sector the required to push in terms of infrastructure, institutes, quality education.
Last year, the government allocated Rs 99,300 crore for the education sector.