Budget 2014 should provide much needed boost to education sector

By Shekhar Sanyal

"The new government is showing concerns and devising action-oriented approaches to educate and skill our young people. We expect the budget to provide much needed boost to the education sector. With the HRD minister's nod for spending 6 per cent of GDP on education, the sector will experience result-driven initiatives. The immediate focus of the budget should be to deal with three challenges - faculty crunch, quality regulation and unemployability. The budget should emphasize on:

1. Enhanced focus on research and emphasis on teachers and teaching

2. Government's major schemes like RUSA, RMSA and SSA should be strengthened and streamlined to be outcome based.

3. Skill development should be given high priority.

4. Bringing together the public agencies (NSDC, HEC, UGC, AICTE) to work closely to tackle the issue of unemployability.

5. Incorporating professionalism and ethics in the course curriculum

Shekhar Sanyal, Director and Country Head, Institution of Engineering and Technology.