Budget 2023: Less tax on educational programmes, more focus on career awareness; What education sector expects

NEW DELHI: The union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Budget 2023-24 on February 1. The education sector this year has a lot many expectations from the budget 2023-24. From decreasing the tax on education programmes and provision for ‘internationalisation’ of education to encouraging the setting up of a Digital Library ecosystem and focusing on career awareness to drive employability, the education sector is hopeful to see some substantial changes in policies focusing on a long term impact in the education sector in the union budget 2023 .

Driven by a young demographic, India is fast becoming a talent pool for the world, notes Lejo Sam Oommen MD, ETS India. The government aspires to have 25 per cent of global workforce to be Indian by 2047 and therefore early-stage exposure to Internationalization is key to meeting this objective.

The Union budget 2023 outlay, Sam said, must provide for ‘Internationalization’ at State and Central Government Universities, while also making India a destination for foreign students. Exchange programmes between global institutions and Indian universities will augur well for learners who are presently devoid of international exposure.

Also Read | Education ministry spent only 8.3% of budget estimate for RUSA in 2021-22

Noting that the 2023 Budget comes nearly in tandem with the rollout of the New National Education Policy, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Knimbus, Tarun said the Government this time will be using this opportunity to accelerate some of the foundational principles of NEP 2020 which are access, equity, quality, affordability and accountability.

“Given that Digital driven access is the key theme of NEP 2020, Government should encourage setting up of a Digital Library ecosystem that can work in conjunction with Digital Universities that are being planned. Such digital content repositories will not just aid learners, but also support institutions and educators with classroom learning given ease of access to curated and authentic content,” Tarun added.

Also Read | India must invest 50% education budget on skilling engineers to handle cyber threats: Expert

About 50 per cent of India’s population is below 25 years and for this segment to make India a talent powerhouse, it must have the right tools for informed career decision-making and engagement, founder of Mytransform Roopali Mehra said.

“Provisioning for such tools, albeit with a public private partnership model, within an institution will enable informed decision-making skills in youth. We look forward to a budget outlay that focuses on building a career ready generation along with strong education / skill credentials,” Mehra added.

Anish Srikrishna, Chief Executive Officer, TimesPro anticipating that taxes on education programmes be reduced said: “In the Indian Higher Education and H.EdTech sector, affordability and accessibility are critical factors. We anticipate that taxes on educational programmes will be reduced significantly from the current 18%. This will ease the burden of millions of learners seeking a better future through skilling and upskilling programmes, thereby influencing employability and employment.”

“We hope that the government will encourage greater private participation in its digitization efforts, especially where it concerns professional learning and skill based education. I am sure our regulators will consider involving private participation to drive reach and engagement, to ultimately grow the GER to NEP target of 50% and of course drive improved learning outcomes. The proposed Digital Universities can be a great force multiplier in this mission and we look forward to an enhanced role for private H.Edtech firms here,” he added.

“The Indian subcontinent in the 21st Century is emerging to be a human skill factory for the world. A robust provision to digitize the educational grassroots and to identify the ‘communication dividend’ ruling our population is the next big step to make socio-economic strides internationally. The linguistic demography of India is a unique and exciting trump card and if played well, expert English language augmentation to the native speeches can give the nation a fair lead this century” Ratnesh Jha, the Chief Executive Officer, Burlington English said.