The past two years have made a huge impact on all sectors of the economy and the education sector was one which had to bear the brunt of the pandemic to a greater extent. Many educational institutes closed down while some are barely surviving today. The Covid-19 pandemic has forced a paradigm shift in education across the country. The education was completely shifted to online mode with country wide Covid 19 restrictions. The experts have demanded the government to allocate funds in Budget 2022 to revive the closed down schools.
Only since a few days the schools across the country have started to open, but this initiated a fresh wave of shock to the vast education sector. New problems have been arising each day and the experts feel that there are many issues that should be addressed immediately in the forthcoming Budget 2022 of the Central Government.
The experts are demanding an increase in budget allocation for educational sector is required to address many issues like to reduction the digital divide, checking of the school dropouts’ rates, faster implementation of the National Education Policy, setting up of new institutes etc
Increase the Budget Allocation for Education Sector
The educational experts are demanding an increase in the budget allocation for the education sector in this Budget 2022. According to them the funds allocation in the Budget 2022 is essential to prioritise future strategic needs over today's operational needs and invest more in education. The experts have also demanded that the Goods and Service Tax (GST) on educational services should be reduced from 18% to 5% in Budget 2022. They also demanded the government to allocate funds for supporting ed-tech firms to promote more online education. They also demanded to implement long term tax rebates for new ed-tech companies. The focus should be more on development of PPP (public-private partnership) projects for providing quality education in the future.
Reduce Digital Divide
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, many children were unable to attend the physical classes and lost the majority of syllabus. The lack of internet infrastructure in many remote areas had to be blamed as the children were unable to attend online classes due to poor internet connectivity. The experts urged the government to take up efforts to decrease the digital divide and ensure that every child gets quality education in future.
Set Up Skill training for teachers
There are many complaints that the teachers are not properly skilled in many government and private educational institutes across the country. The experts demanded to allocate some funds in Budget 2022 for skill training activities and workshops for all the teachers. So that quality education can be provided to all across the country. Special workshops and skill development institutes should be developed to train the teachers across the country.