Presenting the Union Budget 2022-23, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman acknowledged that due to the pandemic-induced closure of schools, especially in rural areas, and children belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and other vulnerable sections, nearly two thousand people have lost their lives. have been given. years of formal education.
The government has proposed expansion of the ‘One Class-One TV Channel’ program through 200 channels to provide supplementary education in regional languages in schools from classes 1 to 12. “Two years of learning loss will be compensated by setting up TV channels, really ????? It shows that we are not serious about the loss of education of our children. Open schools and let children learn individually Bring back for. Invest in schooling,” tweeted Chandrakant Laharia, an epidemiologist and public policy expert. He has been vocal against the closure of schools for a long time.
Yamini Iyer, chair of the Center for Policy Research, tweeted, “Congratulations to the Finance Minister for recognizing the loss from two years of school closures but really a class-A TV, e-content is not the answer. Opening schools and ( sic). Are we so blind to the ground reality?”
KIIT International School chairperson Mona Lisa Bal said the budget was a hit-and-miss for the education sector.
“While it has finally addressed and recognized the learning losses caused by the pandemic, the need to develop the country’s digital infrastructure was not adequately focused in the budget. Years are lost and introduction of supplementary teachers was extremely necessary.
“Complementary education can help bridge the gap to a great extent. To provide supplementary education in regional languages for classes 1-12, increasing the ‘One Class-One TV Channel’ from 12 to 200 TV channels is a welcome step. But it won’t be enough,” said Baal.
The overall financial allocation for the education sector for 2022-23 has increased from Rs 93,224 crore (Budget Estimate) to Rs 1.04 lakh crore in 2021-22 as the minister stresses on digital modes of education to address learning deficits Can you , The revised estimate for 2021-22 is Rs 88,001 crore.
A digital university to be built on ‘hub-and-spoke’ model and expansion of ‘One Class-One TV Channel’ program through 200 channels to provide supplementary education in regional languages in schools, major initiatives proposed in the education sector is one of. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said this in her budget speech on Tuesday.
“A major thrust of the budget this year is towards digitization of higher education and this is a matter of serious concern. The announcement of Digital University and PM e-VIDYA Yojana will give only a statistical uplift to GER without increasing public expenditure on education. In India For families with vast digital divide and lack of resources and gadgets, there is a need for more schools and higher education institutions on the ground than in cyber-space,” said a group of teachers from Academics for Action and Development (AAD), University of Delhi . , said in a statement.
“The idea of replacing human teachers with digital teachers in a digital university is not apt for India, where the vast diversity among students requires different explanations for better understanding. Secondly, it will lead to job cuts, while large There are number of qualified and NET-qualified candidates in search of teaching jobs,” it added.
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