Indian Budget increases spending on Education

India is planning to spend Rs 9 billion ($189 million) on education programs which will leverage IT and Communications network within the country to reach the poorest.  The budget laid this out.

Although for India’s size this is paltry.  If I take India’s population as 1.5 billion, then this amounts to Rs 6 per person.  Which isn’t a whole lot to begin within.  But given the other expenses of Government schools and NGO funding over the year, one would assume that some of this will benefit the poorest of the kids.

There will be a hike of Rs 20 billion in spending on higher education including setting up the new IITs and spending on existing IITs.  I certainly do not understand this race to create more IITs.  As if just by calling it an “IIT”, it will somehow become “great”!  What should be done is to create the existing IITs into Universities and then replicate them.  In fact convert the existing State Universities on the model of the IIT-University model.  There is no use replicating stuff.. or creating more of the same.  IITs are just silo-ed institutions.. they need to be developed along the lines of MIT etc, as Prof Yashpal Committee has suggested.  Hopefully, some sense will prevail in the Education honchos of this Government.

Reference Links:

1. India Plans Spending More on Education Using Technology