Gist of EPW June Week 3, 2022

The Economic and Political Weekly (EPW) is an important source of study material for IAS, especially for the current affairs segment. In this section, we give you the gist of the EPW magazine every week. The important topics covered in the weekly are analyzed and explained in a simple language, all from a UPSC perspective.

In the Middle of Hope and Crisis

What Union Budget 2022–23 Offers for Education?

Context:

• Analysis for allocations of the Union Budget 2022–23 to the education sector and the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on it.
• The implementation of the National Education Policy, 2020.

Impact of Education on Society:

• Education contributes significantly to economic growth.
• Reduces poverty and ine­qualities.
• Helps in cultural advancement.
• Ensures poli­tical maturity.
• Strengthens civil society.
• Enhances social progress and human development.

Recommendations to increase budget allocation in the education sector:

• Recognising the critical role of education in India’s socio-economic progress, the Education Commission (1964–66) recommended allocating approximately 6% of the national income to education.
• National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 considers public investment in education as extremely critical for achieving the high-quality and equitable public education system which is required for India’s future economic, social, cultural, intellectual, and technological progress and growth.

Targets under NEP:

• Universalisation of school education and achieving 100% gross enrolment ratio (GER) in preschool to secondary level by 2030.
• Achieving 50% GER in higher education by 2035.
• Providing vocational skills to 50% of learners by 2025.

Impact of COVID-19 on the Education Sector:

• The education budget for low- and lower-middle-income countries, has considerably declined.
• Large-scale school closure resulted in:
  • Significant learning loss for students – A study revealed that learning loss in languages is as high as 82% in primary education and 92% in mathematics.
• Shift to remote learning such as teaching through television channels, digital and online platforms.
  • Issues/concerns with remote learning:
    • Vast digital divide – The recently relea­sed Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) data shows that while smartphone ownership for enro­lled children has increased, it varies significantly with households’ socio-economic status. For example – 52% of families with low parental education have at least one smartphone at home, while this figure is 82% in families with high parental education. 
    • Ineffectiveness and quality of remote learning.
    • Incompetencies of the teachers to use digital mode of teaching.
    • Students from low-income families and first-generation learners require physical classrooms and informal spaces for building their social and cultural capital, which in turn improves wellbeing. 
• Teachers need to arrange for remedial classes to minimize students’ learning gap, which needs extra public investment in government schools.
• Govern­ment schools require additional funding to bring the newer health and safety regulations into practice.

Budget Provisions of 2022 at various Education Levels and its Potential Impact:

The budget outlay for the education sector in 2022-2023 is 2.6% of the total budget.

• School Education:
  • There is a marginal increase in union government expenditure on school education, from 59.1% to 60.8%.
  • Given the declining revenue generation in states due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the extra transfer of res­ources to states would certainly help to improve their education sector.
  • Moreover, the increase in the budget for schemes is largely for CSS vis-à-vis central sector schemes. This would be beneficial for schemes like the midday meal (MDM) scheme which were disrupted amid the pandemic.
• Higher Education:
  • In the 2022–23 budget, the share of higher education to the overall education budget is 39.2%, which is less than the previous year’s share of 40.9%. 
  • The spending share of states/union territories to the total higher education budget was merely 2.2%. 
• Financial Aid for Students:
  • The budgetary allocation of the “student financial aid programme”  has declined.
  • The “student financial aid programme” provides enrolments to socially underprivileged sections in various tertiary-level educational degrees and diplomas in government and private ins­ti­tutions.
• Scholarships:
  • The allocations increased in two heads – Prime Minister Research Fel­l­owship and scholarships for college/university students.
• Digital Education:
  • There is a considerable increase in the budgetary allocations for digital education – 4.78 times compared to in 2021–22. 
  • The major focus of the budget speech was digital learning, which ranged from establishing a digital university to providing quality education through “digital teachers”.
• Teachers’ Training
  • Budgetary allocation for teacher training is reduced significantly in 2022–23 compared to 2021–22 from 250 crores to 127 crores.

Conclusions:

• Though the union government has increased its educational budgetary outlay for 2022–23 (BE) but its share in the overall budget is just 2.64%.
• Moreover, the expenditure on education as a share of GDP is around 3%, and we are far from the target of spending 6% of GDP on education. 
• The education sector is currently under the worst crisis, and to recover from this, it needs additional funding.
• As India is geared towards imp­le­menting the NEP 2020, it is well argued that to achieve the targets made under it, huge public investment would be required.
• Overall, there is an urgent need to inc­rease the budget for the education sector, which is critical for promoting national development.

Read previous EPW articles in the link.