Budget 2025: Education sector hopes for 6% of total allocations
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. India's education sector is holding its breath to see what's in store for it in the Union budget for 2025, to be presented on 1 February. The National Educational Policy (NEP) introduced in 2020 aims to achieve complete literacy by 2025, and this budget is crucial to achieving that goal.
India's literacy rate has shown significant improvement, reaching 80.3% among people aged 7 and above in 2022-23. The previous budget allocated a record ₹73,008 crore to the Department of School Education and Literacy, a 4.3% increase from the previous year. This year, the industry is hoping that education will get 6% of total allocations, a figure set by the NEP, up from 2.9% share currently.
The education sector has several key expectations from the upcoming budget. STEM and AI Research are high on the agenda, with industry analysts calling for increased allocation for research in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. With recruiters looking for candidates with AI skills, there's a growing need for intensified focus on artificial intelligence and machine learning research and courses.
Revamping ITIs and vocational education institutes is another priority. The industry expects more schemes to upgrade Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs), which provide vocational training in various trades. The previous budget introduced a ₹60,000 crore scheme to upgrade 1,000 ITIs.
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