According to the Union Budget 2018, the government will allot Rs. 1 Lakh Crore towards the educational infrastructure in the country, over four years.
“By 2022, every block with more than 50 percent Scheduled Tribe population and at least 20,000 tribal people will have Ekalavya schools at par with Navodaya Vidayalas”, said Finance minister Arun Jaitley, in the Union Budget speech on February 1st. He also added that the government will work on training teachers and increasing the number of schools for tribal children. As per the amended Right to Education Act, nearly 13 lakh teachers will be trained.
Jaitley also said that the Centre is committed to educating India’s children, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has always emphasised that the country’s future depends on its children. According to Bloomberg Quint, the Centre will increase the intensity of digitisation in the education sector, Jaitley said, in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Digital India vision. The “digital impetus bodes well for the education sector”, CL Educate Ltd. Said in a statement.
The government also announced a Prime Minister Fellowship scheme under which 1,000 B.Techs will be provided the opportunity to pursue Ph.Ds in IITs and IISc. “Under this scheme, we will identify 1,000 best B.Tech students each year from premier institutions and provide them facilities to do Ph.Ds in the Indian Institutes of Technology and the Indian Institute of Science. The students will also be rewarded with a handsome fellowship amount,” Jaitley said.
Measures have also been taken towards setting up a ‘specialised railway university’ in Vadodara, and also for two new full-fledged schools of planning and architecture. “Additionally, 18 School of Planning and Architecture will be set up in IITs and NITs as autonomous schools,” the Minister said.
