The Centre will appoint 38,800 teachers and staff for 740 Eklavya Model Schools, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced this while presenting the Union budget in Parliament on Wednesday.
“A National Digital Library will be set up in the country. 157 new nursing colleges will be established. Three institutes of excellence will be established for Artificial Intelligence. 47 lakh youths will get the benefit of the National Apprentice Scheme,” Sitharaman said.
The Finance Minister said that 157 new Nursing Colleges will be set up in collocation with the existing 157 Medical Colleges, established since 2014. Eklavya Model Residential School is a scheme of Government of India. This scheme is especially helpful in making the Scheduled Tribes educated all over India. This scheme is related to the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs. The objective of the scheme is to ensure that tribal students get quality education in remote tribal areas.
This year in the Union budget, the Centre has fixed a target of training 47 lakh youths in 3 years. Beside this, PMKVY 4.0, national apprentice scheme, job training in partnership with industry in coding, IOT, drones, Mechatronics and AI related new initiatives have also been announced in the Union budget.
5G centre in 100 engineering colleges is appreciated, by the educationists. Union Finance Minister announced opening of libraries, both digital and physical, in rural areas. Educational Institutions believe that it will go a long way in increasing the literacy rate as well as enrolment ratio in rural India.
The Education Ministry this year was allocated Rs 1.12 lakh crore, a marginal 8 per cent increase from 1.04 lakh crore in 2022-23.
Prof Arvind Chaturvedi, Pro Vice Chancellor, IILM University Gurugram, said, 8 per cent increase is not sufficient. Higher allocation was expected this year, in that sense it is disappointing.
“But I welcome plan to convert DIETs (District Institutes of Education & Training) into vibrant institutes of excellence. India now has more private universities than the state and central universities and therefore liberal grants should have been announced for private education providers in higher education sector. In a related sector, the announcement of National Data Governance is a welcome step,” Prof Chaturvedi added.
According to Sitharaman, a National Digital Library will be set up to promote the education of children and adolescents.
She informed that the National Digital Library will be opened up to the panchayat and ward level. Books according to every age will be available in the National Digital Library. Apart from Hindi and English, books will also be made available in various regional languages.
