Union Budget 2018: 18 New Architecture Schools to be Established

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is revealing the Budget for 2018. Along with the report and progress made in the past year, the minister will also reveal the budget for different sectors including health, sanitation, agriculture, education, etc.

There have been some major investment revelations and financial plans for the upcoming fiscal year in the Budget 2018. There have been various claims that the investment in the education sector has reduced over the years. Until now, investment in the education sector is less than three percent of the total GDP.

However, according to reports, the Government is planning to increase investment in the investment in the education. Here are some of the major announcements that the Jaitley has made so far regarding the budget allocated to education:

Union Budget 2018 Education Highlights:

• In order to increase the research output and productivity, the Finance Ministry has allocated Rs. 1 lakh crore for education research.
• 1000 Prime Minister’s Fellowship Scheme for Doctoral Research has been successfully launched for research at IITs, IISc, etc and aid will be continued for the same.
• The government is planning to set up 18 new Schools of Planning and Architecture (SPA) in the years to come and grants will be released for the same.
• The Finance Minister also announced the plan to establish Ekalavya Model Residential School on similar lines to the Navodaya Vidyalayas to provide quality education to children of ST community in their environment. The plan includes covering up to 50% of the block ST population by 2022
• Budget grants for IITs, IIMs, NITs, IIITs and central universities in order to expand infrastructure will not be released directly but will be given to Higher Education Funding Agency (HEFA) that was established in 2017.
• According to the new funding model, named Revitalising Infrastructure and Systems in Education (RISE), the central institutes and universities and will be able to borrow up to Rs 1,00,000 crore for a duration of coming four years.
• Jaitley also announced 1200 crore for health sector and the plan to set up 1.5 lakh health centres across India that will increase employment in the health sector for medical aspirants.
• Railways University at Vadodara will also be established soon, the minister added.
• The minister also proposed to replace 3% education cess on corporation tax and personal income tax with a 4% ‘Health and Education Cess’ in order to look after the education and health needs of families that are below BPL.
• Also, 24 new government medical colleges and district hospitals to be upgraded. Every 3 parliamentary constituencies have at least one medical college.
• National Health Protection scheme has also been launched that will benefit 50 crore families and will cover health expenses up to Rs. 5 lakh per family.
• Jaitley also added that the government is planning to use technology to modify teaching methods. Blackboards will be replaced by digital boards across educational institutes.
• Undertrained teachers will be offered training in order to improve quality education under the Diksha programme and Integrated B.Ed programmes will also be introduced, the minister added.
• Rs 1 lakh crore has been allocated for revitalizing school infrastructure over the next four years.

Also Read: Everything You Should Know About Education Budget 2017

For more updates regarding the financial budget, stay tuned with CollegeDekho.