Union Budget 2025: Education Sector Seeks Higher Investment

As India gears up to present the Union Budget 2025 on Saturday, 1 February, the education sector remains one of the key areas of focus. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is expected to significantly increase education spending beyond the current levels to bring India closer to the NEP’s target of 6%. Different stakeholders in the sector are anticipating higher budgetary allocations and other supports to enhance school and higher education, skill development, and research.

Increased digital learning and infrastructure investment can help reduce the urban-rural education divide gap. Strengthening internet connectivity and providing students with digital devices can help achieve inclusive and equitable access to education. There is also a need to spend more on vocational training and skill development programs, particularly in emerging areas like AI, green energy, and financial technology.

Scholarship programs and interest-free education loans for economically weaker students would also be welcome measures. The upcoming budget presents an opportunity for the government to make bold investments that can transform India’s education landscape for the future.

The previous budget had put adequate focus on enhancing higher education and skill development in India. The Skill India for instance was reported to have already trained more than 1.4 crore youth while upskilling and reskilling over 54 lakh others. The budget also mentioned about setting up new higher educational institutions, including IITs, IIITs, IIMs, AIIMS etc. We expect the coming budget to lay further emphasis on upgrading skill education across existing universities and institutions. A dedicated budget allocation to facilitate increased industry-academia partnership is the need of the hour. While it will encourage more institutions to integrate action & experiential learning in their education delivery model, it will enable the creation of valuable industry-ready workforce, which would be well acquainted with the requirements and challenges of respective industries by the time the curriculum is completed. Education is a fundamental pillar of nation building and thus, we expect the Union Budget to announce the highest ever allocation for the education sector, especially in the wake of India’s young population.