As Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Interim Union Budget for 2024, one area that failed to garner much attention in the government’s allocative funds was the education sector at large.
Note how the budget outlay for school education has been increased by over Rs 500 crore but the grant for higher education has been reduced by over Rs 9600 crore from the previous fiscal year's Revised Estimate (RE).
Last year, the budget allocation of the Education Ministry increased by a marginal 8% from Rs 1.12 lakh crore as opposed to Rs 1.04 lakh crore in 2022-23.
The finance minister reported a 28% increase in female enrollment in higher education, stating how in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) courses, women now make up an impressive 43% of the total enrollment, marking one of the highest figures globally. She forgot to add that educated women also occupy the highest proportion of urban employed youth as per the most recent labor market statistics.
However, if we look at the state of the education sector across India, a lot of blame can go around in the way the Modi government has failed to accredit higher outlays to education year-on-year, given the same government announced an ambitious National Education Policy (NEP) that requires significant funding (on part of the government) to help institutions implement the policy.