Budget 2022: Edtech sector welcomes Digital University, PM e-Vidya expansion, e-content

NEW DELHI: The private edtech sector welcomed the announcements of establishment of a Digital University, expansion of PM e-Vidya’s “One Class, One TV Channel” programme from 12 to 200 new TV channels to teach local languages, and e-content in regional languages in the Union Budget 2022 presented today by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Lok Sabha.

Union Budget 2022 Live Updates

Nitin Potdar, Partner, J Sagar Associates (JSA) said, “Loss of 2 years of regular education seems to be covered by Open Digital University, which would collaborate with existing universities along with 200 New TV channels for education sounds very promising. We only hope that this gets implemented in record time and does not get lost in government red tape.” However, he was disappointed over no specific funding of the road map for implementation of New Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

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“From the expansion of PM E-Vidya to 200 channels to the setting up a digital university, the initiatives indicate that the government has put the spotlight on digitization to boost the penetration and access to education across Bharat. The need of the hour to make this vision a reality is by integrating a mobile-first, teacher-led education infrastructure, which can take digitization to the masses,” said Mihir Gupta, CEO and Co-founder, Teachmint.

Neelima Kamrah, principal of KIIT World School Gurugram said, “The launch of the digital university under the PM scheme will make the young generation access world-class quality education and this will make students make their careers stronger and better. The skill development program will help our youth to enhance their skills and make their name in their field. The budget has opened up the door for Women under the scheme Mission Shakti, Mission Vatsalya, and Mission Anganwadi giving opportunities for women to skill and get financially stable.”

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“...Soloprenurship and freelancing will be a big trend in the future. Digital and creators' skills can uplift many young job seekers and get them ready to be meaningfully employed without leaving their cities or villages. We need to focus on workplace experiences along with skilling, re-skilling and upskilling. This will drive the creators economy in India,” said Manav Subodh, Managing Director, 1M1B (One Million for one Billion).

Hits and Misses in Union Budget 2022

For MonaLisa Bal, chairperson, KIIT International School, the Budget 2022 was a hit and miss for the education sector. While she welcomed the introduction of supplementary teachers, increase of TV channels for local languages, launch of digital DESH e-portal for skilling, e-content, development of Digital University, she said this is not enough. “The much-needed increase in budget allotment for the education sector was missed. Further, constructive measures towards digitization and resuming physical classes are needed,” she said.

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"Continued emphasis on mobile connectivity and broadband for economic development, ahead of the 5G rollout, will have a cascading effect on the growth of edtech in India. The proposal of the digital university is a pathbreaking initiative that is in line with the requirements of the post-pandemic world. Moreover, expansion of PM eVIDYA using the Internet, mobile phones, TV and radio mediums and emphasis on the newer technologies like blockchain, drones, etc., will pave the way for harnessing these technologies in the education sector,” Rohit Manglik, CEO, EduGorilla.

Chocko Valliappa, vice-chairman, Sona Group of Education Institutions welcomed the digital education initiatives while saying that it will not benefit students coming from economically weaker backgrounds until they have access to smartphones and digital devices. The government needs to provide that. “Perhaps the enhanced Anganwadis can become wi-fi hot spots,” he said. Moreover, he found not making skill education a part of NEP 2020 to be a miss in Budget 2022.

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Jai Decosta, Founder and CEO at K12 Techno Services found the Budget 2022 to be profitable for the K12 segment and said, “the overall budget failed to provide direction to private education players especially in the K12 segment. The private sector bore the brunt of the pandemic and the budget overlooked it completely and does not give any relief in terms of GST exemption or special provision for Private schools to borrow funds from banks at concessional rates. Since this was highly required and expected from this budget, therefore it was a bit disappointing to notice the FM did not factor these in her Budget planning.”