Union Budget 2017: Arun Jaitley rolls out slew of education reforms

New Delhi: The government unleashed measures to revamp the country’s education system, including setting up of a National Testing Agency to conduct all entrance examinations for higher education institutions.

This newspaper was the first to report on January 29 that government plans to unveil a unified examination body for higher education sector. Asserting that quality of education will energise the youth, finance minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday said the government proposes to establish a National Testing Agency as an autonomous and self-sustained premier testing organisation to conduct all entrance examinations for higher education institutions.

This would free CBSE, AICTE and other premier institutions from these administrative responsibilities so that they can focus more on academics, he said. “We have proposed to introduce a system of measuring annual learning outcomes in our schools. Emphasis will be given on science education and flexibility in curriculum to promote creativity through local, innovative content,” Mr Jaitley said.

The government also proposes to create an innovative fund for secondary education for ensuring universal access, gender parity and quality improvement. He said that the government proposes to leverage information technology and launch SWAYAM Platform with at least 350 online courses which will enable students to virtually attend the courses taught by the best faculty.

Access to SWAYAM would be widened by linkage with DTH channels, dedicated to education, Mr Jaitley said. “In higher education, the government will undertake reforms in the UGC. Good quality institutions would be enabled to have greater administrative and academic autonomy,” the finance minister said. Meanwhile, Union minister of human resource development Prakash Javadekar hailed the Budget as “revolutionary” and referred to it as a Budegt for “Better India”. “This is a revolutionary Budget, a Budget which is development-oriented, Budget which honours honest tax payers #BudgetForBetterIndia,” he tweeted.

In Focus

• 62 new Navodaya Vidyalayas will come up.
• Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan to focus on quality of education.
• Regulatory architecture to be provided to 10 public and 10 private institutions to emerge as world-class Teaching and Research Institutisons.
• Higher education financing agency to be set-up with initial capital base of Rs 1,000 crore.
• Digital depository for school leaving certificates, college degrees, academic awards and marksheets to be set up.