Budget 2021 a move to ‘destroy’ public education: Teachers’ body

NEW DELHI: The Union Budget 2021’s allocation to education is drawing criticism from academics and teachers’ organisations. The All India Federation of University and College Teachers Organization (AIFUCTO) has termed the Budget 2021 as a move to “destroy” the public-funded education system.

The allocation to the education sector for the next financial year has been reduced by 6.13% to Rs 93,224 crores. The budget cut has not gone down well with the academic community which believes this will corporatise and commercialise the education sector. The allocation to higher education in the Union Budget 2021 is over Rs 1,100 crore less than the current year’s budget. It has dropped from Rs 39,466 crore this year to Rs 38,350 crore in the next.

Another association of teachers from Delhi University, Academics for Action and Development (AAD) has said: “The central government has once again reinforced the privatization and contractualisation of the higher education sector and merely projected education and research as one of the six pillars without providing adequate funds and facilities.”

Union Budget 2021: What about the vacancies?

The allocation for World Class Institutions -- the Institutions of Eminence scheme -- has increased more than three times the expenditure in 2019-20, to a level of Rs. 1,700 Crores in 2021-22. But allocations to institutions catering to general masses through state-run universities and central universities and their colleges have declined significantly in real terms. “The government is misallocating the scarce funds towards the creation of these institutes of eminence which will cater to the interests of the richer section of the students and private Institutes,” says a statement issued by AAD.

Commenting on the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s announcement that the legislative process for setting up the Higher Education Commission of India will begin this year, AIFUCTO’s statement says: “The announcement to bring the bill for the formation of Higher Education Commissions against all our opposition is a retrograde measure. It is an affront on our federal structure and will centralize all policy initiatives in the hands of the central government.”

The association also questioned the large scale vacancy in universities and colleges because of fund crunch. It said: “There is no measure to fill up the large scale vacant teaching and non-teaching posts in the country. There is nothing about the service conditions of contractual, part-time and block grants as well as ad-hoc teachers.”

Union Budget 2021: Umbrella structure, ‘glue grant’

Nirmala Sitharaman also announced the creation of an umbrella structure over institutions in nine cities, and a “glue grant” to make this happen.

However, according to AAD, the present higher education sector in India is skewed toward metro cities, which will be further accentuated with the proposed nine-city based formal umbrella structure. “The students from rural and underdeveloped regions will be left to fend for themselves,” it said in a statement.

According to AIFUCTO, the “glue grant” for research will ultimately encourage market forces to enter into the public sector of education.

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