There will be an appointment of 38,800 teachers and staff fir 740 Eklavya Model Schools, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced during the presentation of the Union budget in Parliament today.

Sitharaman said, “A National Digital Library will be set up in the country. 157 new nursing colleges will be established. Three institutes of excellence will be established for Artificial Intelligence. 47 lakh youths will get the benefit of the National Apprentice Scheme.”

The Finance Minister said that there will be an establishment of 157 new Nursing Colleges in collocation with the existing 157 Medical Colleges, established since 2014. Eklavya Model Residential School, a scheme of Government of India, which is especially helpful in making the Scheduled Tribes educated all over India. This scheme is equivalent to the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs. The aim of the scheme is ensuring that tribal students get quality education in remote tribal areas.

In the Union budget of 2023, the Centre has fixed a target of providing training to 47 lakh youths in 3 years. Beside this, PMKVY 4.0, national apprentice scheme, job training in partnership with industry in coding, IOT, drones, Mechatronics and AI related new initiatives have also been announced in the Union budget.

There will be 5G centres in 100 engineering colleges which is appreciated, by the educationists. Union Finance Minister also announced opening of libraries, both digital and physical, in rural areas. Educational Institutions believe that it will go a long way in increasing the literacy rate as well as enrolment ratio in rural India.

The Education Ministry in 2023 was allocated with Rs 1.12 lakh crore, a marginal 8 per cent increase from 1.04 lakh crore in 2022-23.

Prof Arvind Chaturvedi, Pro Vice Chancellor, IILM University Gurugram, said, that an 8 percent increase is not sufficient. Higher allocation was expected this year, in that sense it is disappointing.

Prof Chaturvedi added, “But I welcome plan to convert DIETs (District Institutes of Education & Training) into vibrant institutes of excellence. India now has more private universities than the state and central universities and therefore liberal grants should have been announced for private education providers in higher education sector. In a related sector, the announcement of National Data Governance is a welcome step.”

As the budget gets presented, Sitharaman stated, a National Digital Library will be set up to promote the education of children and adolescents.

She further mentioned that the National Digital Library will be opened up to the panchayat and ward level and books according to every age will be available in the National Digital Library. Apart from Hindi and English, and books will also be made available in various regional languages.