Budget 2021 had major announcements for the education sector. As per the New Education Policy (NEP), the government will set up a central university in Leh, 100 new Sainik schools and Higher Education Commission in India. It also emphasizes on increasing collaboration with foreign institutions, strengthening over 15,000 schools and reforms in board exams from 2022.

The Ministry of Education has been allocated a total of 93,224.31 crore this year, while Rs.99,311.52 crore was allocated during the 2020-21 budget and was eventually revised to Rs.85,089.07 crore when the pandemic hit due to which classes were shut to prevent the virus from spreading.

“For accessible higher education in Ladakh, I propose to set up a Central University in Leh,” said Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her budget speech.

She continued, “More than 15,000 schools will be qualitatively strengthened to include all components of the National Education Policy. They shall emerge as exemplar schools in their regions, handholding and mentoring other schools to achieve the ideals of the policy. 100 new Sainik Schools will e set up in partnership with NGOs, private schools and states. 750 new Eklavya model residential schools will also be set up”.

Sitharaman also said that “In budget 2019-20, I had mentioned about the setting up of Higher Education Commission of India. We would be introducing legislation this year to implement the same. It will be an umbrella body having four separate vehicles for standard-setting, accreditation, regulation and funding”.

The budget has also increased exemption to Rs.5 crore in annual receipts for charitable trusts running education institutions. It was previously Rs.1 crore.

“We hope to reduce compliance burden on small charitable trusts running educational institutions and hospitals. So far, there is a blanket exemption to such entities, whose annual receipts does not exceed Rs.1 crore. I now propose to increase this amount to Rs.5 crore. The finance minister noted that many Indian cities have various research institutions, universities and colleges supported by the Government of India like Hyderabad which has about 40 such major institutions,” said Sitharaman.

She also added, “In nine such cities, we will create formal umbrella structures so that these institutions can have better synergy, while also retaining their internal autonomy. A Glue Grant will be set aside for this purpose”.

As per PTI, in order to promote enhanced academic collaboration with foreign higher educational institutions, the Budget has proposed to put in place a regulatory mechanism to permit dual degrees, joint degrees, twinning arrangements and other such mechanisms.

The government has proposed to work on standardization of Indian Sign language for children with hearing impairments. This will be done across India and the government will also develop national and state curriculum materials for use by them.

"There are a number of senior and retired teachers. They will be used for individual mentoring of school teachers and educators through constant online and offline support on subjects, themes and pedagogy," she said.

Sitharaman announced that the CBSE board exam reforms will be implemented from 2022-23 academic session in a phased manner.

These reforms were proposed in the NEP last year in which making board exams easy, reduction of curriculum to core concepts, replacements of 10+2 structure of school curricula with a 5+3+3+4 structure and teaching up at least class 5 in the mother tongue or a regional language, were among the many school education reforms outlined.

FM quoted, “For the past few years, our prime minister has been engaging with students every year before their board exams to help them overcome anxiety and stress. In this direction, we will introduce CBSE Board Exam reforms in a phased manner to be effective from the 2022-23 academic session”.

Sitharaman also added that exams will move away from rote-learning and students shall be tested on their conceptual clarity, analytical skills and application of knowledge to real life situations.

"Students have so far been evaluated on unidimensional parameters. There will be a complete shift from using assessments to not only judge the cognitive levels of the learner, but also using it as an opportunity to identify the unique strengths and the potential of the child. To this effect, a holistic progress card is envisaged to provide students with valuable information on their strengths, areas of interest, needed areas of focus and thereby, helping them in making optimal career choices," she added.

Noting that during the year, despite COVID-19 pandemic, more than 30 lakh elementary school teachers have been trained digitally, the finance minister said, "in 2021-22, we will enable the training of 56 lakh school teachers through the National Initiative for School Heads and Teachers for Holistic Advancement (NISTHA).

"In my Budget Speech of July 2019, I had announced the National Research Foundation. We have now worked out the modalities and the NRF outlay will be of 50,000 crores, over 5 years. It will ensure that the overall research ecosystem of the country is strengthened with focus on identified national-priority thrust areas," Sitharaman said.