Education Budget increased from 65,000 Cr to 1,10,000 in 4 yrs, NEP in final stage, says Javadekar

NEW DELHI, JUNE 18: The Budget allocation for Higher Education has increased from Rs. 65,000 Cr in 2013-14 to Rs. 1,10,000 Cr in past four years, said Union Minister of Human Resource Development (HRD) highlighting the past four years of achievements of the Government. The Minister also announced that New Education Policy (NEP) is in its final stage and is likely to be announced by the end of 2018.

To create high-quality institutions under the Institutions of Eminence (IoE) scheme Javadekar said that very soon the Government will announce names of 10 public and 10 private institutions shortlisted under the scheme.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has made accreditation mandatory for higher education institutions to avail funding under the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA). However, a large number of institutions are yet to get themselves accredited due to time taking process of the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), huge volume and diversity of institutions. The HRD Minister has announced that there have been changes in the accreditation process and now more international elements have been added into it.

Javadekar said that the industry is closely watching ‘Hackathon’ being organised by MHRD and this would boost employability of engineering graduates. "To improve employability of Commerce, Arts graduates we are changing the courses and now they will be converted into BA (Professional), B.Com (Professional) and similar courses where there will be changes in the curriculum and syllabus with more practical exposure," he said.