Fund allocated for world-class institutes, but no new educational institute for Delhi
NEW DELHI: In her Budget speech, instead of announcing provisions for the education sector, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman talked about implementing a new education policy, a research fund, skill development and a new and reformed higher education regulatory under the category of "youth" but India's Capital Delhi stayed out of any special push from the Centre for the education sector.
The AAP earlier raised that Delhi needed a special push in the education sector mostly for the higher education from the Centre. Delhi government earlier also wrote to the Centre to get the sanction of new colleges and universities in Delhi but the Centre is yet to sanction such. According to the senior officials of the Education Department, the students of Delhi face a problem related to admission in higher education at the colleges and universities of Delhi as there is neither any reservation for the Delhi students nor any specific higher education model specific to Delhi. "The higher education in Delhi is not under the state government but it is under the Centre, therefore, a push was expected which did not happen," said an official.
In the budget, FM Sitharaman credited the PM Modi government's past efforts as three Indian higher education institutes - two Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Science (IISc) - have found a place among top 200 global universities. She announced that the government has allocated Rs 400 crore to create "world-class institutes". However, by remaining silent on school education, the finance minister did not talk about primary and secondary education, which is necessary to improve the quality of higher education.
The Delhi also did not get any push in the education sector from the Centre as there was no announcement of new centre-run educational institutes for Delhi neither there were any announcement of Delhi medical, paramedical and associated education institutes. Meanwhile, like the last three years, the Delhi government this year too allocated 26 per cent of its state budget to the education sector. The education budget by the Delhi government includes "Rs 13,518 crore under revenue and Rs 2,083 crore under capital.
