Education: Union budget gives no incentive to girls, doesn't mention Gender Inclusion Fund

Counterview Desk 
The Union Budget 2022-23 has failed to respond to the educational crisis induced by the Covid-19 pandemic, Right to Education (RTE) Forum has said, noting, “It is particularly disappointing to see the focus on digital learning and proposing the expansion of e-VIDYA instead of concentrating on re-opening of schools and strengthening government school system in the budget.”
“Underfunding of the Public Education System will adversely impact the education of the disadvantaged sections of society further aggravating the inequality factor in the education sector”, it adds reacting the budget proposals on education.

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Union Budget 2022-23 comes as a disappointment. While the Finance Minister acknowledges the traumatic impact of the pandemic, she has failed to acknowledge the urgent need to reopen schools and make them ready to respond to the COVID context.
Annual Survey of Education Report (ASER) 2021 shows an 8.1% drop in enrolment in private schools with massive migration into the government system. While even the Economic Survey has recommended equipping government schools to handle this demographic shift, this has not seen action. While research suggests that only 8% of rural children were found to be studying regularly online during the pandemic, the Ministry’s decision to double down on a digital solution to address learning loss through supplementary teaching is hard to understand.
UNICEF report suggests that 42% of children between 6-13 years reported not using any type of remote learning during school closures. However the Finance Minister in her speech, while acknowledging the learning loss, mentioned that e-VIDYA programme will be expanded to 200 channels.
With more focus on digital learning, with no real allocations on expansion of digital infrastructure implies that the government is thinking of private investments and public private partnership (PPP) to push digital education. We must understand that the increased focus on Digital Education and no concrete roadmap to strengthen the public education system and formal schooling will hamper the goal of universalisation of education badly.
The Finance Minister in her speech failed to acknowledge the urgent need to reopen schools, where 80% of children aged 14-18 years reported lower levels of learning than when physically at school. Underfunding of the public education system will adversely impact the education of the disadvantaged sections of society further aggravating the inequality factor in the education sector.
While there has been a marginal increase of Rs 6,333 crore in allocation on Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (Rs 37,383 crore in 2022-23 over Rs 31,050 crore in 2021-22), it is yet to return to the pre-pandemic level of Rs 38,860 crore (2020-21 BE) which was already much lower than the required amount.
Allocations to the midday meal (MDM) have also shrunk this year, despite the policy commitment made to provide breakfast in schools and health issues of children during the pandemic. In the newly named scheme, Pradhanmantri Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM-POSHAN) it is only Rs 10,233.75 crore, even lower than the Rs 11,500 crores (2020-21 BE) while MDM was already facing acute crunch for a long.

The budget has yet again failed to provide an investment of 6% of GDP on education, as reiterated by NEP

The Covid-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted the education of children from marginalized communities, especially the girls, and in such a situation the National Scheme for Incentive to Girls has been allocated no budget this year. The Gender Inclusion Fund as promised in the New Education Policy (NEP) receives no mention. At the same time, the much hoped for increase in scholarship schemes for Dalits and Adivasis has also not materialized.
Overall, the budget has yet again failed to provide an investment of 6% of GDP on education, as reiterated by the NEP 2020. Budget must have given a roadmap to strengthen the public education system and ensure ground implementation of the right to free and compulsory education (RTE compliance is still at 25.5% at national level as per recent U Dise Data) as well as its extension from pre-primary to higher secondary.
Instead, in the budget, government should have:

• proposed adequate investment in ensuring safe school operations and re-opening of schools; on the contrary, the outcome budget sets a target of only 123 new schools being opened this year and 8,500 schools having new classrooms built next year.
• proposed plan for the expansion and strengthening of the public school system to ensure the implementation of the RTE Act 2009 and extend it to all levels of schooling to achieve the goals of universalization till higher secondary.
• proposed to fill more than 11 lakh vacancies of teachers (11,09, 486 as per U DISE 2019-20) in schools and strengthen decentralised structures for teacher development.
• massively ramped up in-person special training classes as per RTE Act 2009; the current target of only covering 11 lakh elementary school children and 2 lakhs of children aged 16-19 through the NIOS is inadequate given estimates of a high spike in child labour in the preceding year.
• ensured targeted support for learners who are at risk of not returning to school, especially, Dalits, Adivasis, persons with disabilities, girls and those living in poverty.
• guaranteed food security of children by extending the entitlement to secondary grades and including breakfast in line with the provisions of NEP, 2020
• proposed a comprehensive/umbrella plan to support education and protection of children who lost their parents during the pandemic.

The RTE Forum feels that the budget is nowhere close to addressing the needs of the lost generation of children affected by two years of schooling. In so doing, it risks squandering India’s demographic dividend by failing to address the requirements of India’s greatest wealth -- its children.