The Centre has allocated Rs 1.20 lakh crore for the education sector in the interim budget 2024-25, a drop of around 7% from the previous year’s last fiscal revised estimate (RE) of Rs 1.29 lakh crore. While the overall allocation has decreased significantly, the reduction in the budgetary allocations for the University Grants Commission (UGC) as well as for higher education have seen steep cuts of 60.99% and 16.9%, respectively. The only hike given is for the school education sector.

The interim budget was presented by union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday, which did not have any major announcements for this sector, given that the budget comes ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

The budget for UGC, the higher education regulator in the country, saw the most massive drop in this year’s budgetary allocation of Rs 2,500 crore, as against Rs 6,409 crore in the RE of last year’s fiscal. This is when the new National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 envisages a major shift in higher education with the implementation of the four-year undergraduate programme (FYUP) across central universities and a focus on research and internationalisation, among other expansion measures.

UGC chairperson M Jagadesh Kumar while not commenting directly on the budget cut, however, said that the budget has significant outlays for different sectors. For instance, establishing the National Research Foundation (NRF) marks a significant NEP implementation milestone.

“Recognising the importance of dedicated research funding, the NRF will now receive an average of Rs 10,000 crores annually, ensuring robust support for research endeavours in the university system. In this context, a realignment of the financing within the higher education ecosystem is taking place, with resources strategically distributed across various schemes based on specific needs and goals,” said Kumar.

The budget for the premier Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) too saw a massive drop of around 35.8%. The budgetary allocation for IIMs this year is Rs 212.21 crore, down from Rs 331.01 crore from last fiscal’s RE.

However, the budget expenditure for central universities has seen an increase with a total budgetary allocation of Rs 15,928.00 crore, as against Rs 12,394.22 crore in last fiscal’s RE.

The major cut in the higher education sector was criticised by members of the teaching faculty across central universities.

According to Abha D Habib, an associate professor at Delhi University, given that this is an election year, the budget for higher education was slashed majorly. “Overall education budget is down from last year. This is unfortunate given that the vision of the NEP, which envisages FYUP cannot be fulfilled with such scant resources. The fourth year to undergraduate education is being implemented now, which means a major scaling up of infrastructure and human resources. A fourth year technically means one-third expansion of every unit, which needs an adequate budget,” said Habib.

She added that the steep cut in the UGC budget also means that there will be a reduction in grants to colleges for travel, academics, and other activities.

Also, the finance minister highlighted that female enrolment in higher education has gone up by 28% per cent over the past 10 years. Besides, the participation of women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) streams constitutes 43% of the enrolment, one of the highest in the world.

The budget for the school education sector increased by Rs 500 crore this year with an outlay of Rs 73,008 crore, as against Rs 72,473.80 crore in last fiscal’s RE, which the union ministry of education (MoE) in a statement said is the “highest ever”.

Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan said that the budget 2024-25 will prove to be a stepping stone in making India a developed country by 2047.

Under school education, Kendriya Vidyalaya (KVs), Navodaya Vidyalayas, Nation Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT), PM SHRI Schools, and grants in aid to state governments have seen a hike in outlay.