How Schooling Funds 2022 can drive NEP: Want for particular focus, big investments, and higher management on bills
India stands on the cusp of realizing tremendous global opportunities. Being a young country, it is necessary to have youthful, employable human capital to translate these opportunities into economic growth and GDP.
With the upcoming budget 2022; We as educators and school leaders are very curious what we get out of it? How will it affect the education sector? How much money is allocated?
India has more than 15 lakh schools. The National Education Policy (NEP) again stressed the need for at least 6% of the total budget to be spent on education.
This percentage needs to be improved as we still spend less on education compared to other developed and developing countries. Special focus, huge investments and better cost control are desired.
NDP 2020 states that in order to reach the target of 6% of GDP public spending on education, at the earliest critical components of education will be financially supported:
(i) an adequate number of teachers and staff,
(ii) teacher training and
(iii) development of learning resources.
In the long term, politicians recommend investments in central educational directions:
(i) teacher education and development,
(ii) modernization of colleges and universities,
(iii) research funding,
(iv) basic literacy and
(v) quality early childhood education.
In addition, NEP recommends the efficient use of funds to avoid underutilization of allocations. This will help ensure timely achievement of goals under various educational programs (prsindia.org).
Focus on preparing future-ready teachers
Teacher training is an essential part of Samagra Siksha. However, the money that is made available for this is very small. Teacher enrichment is the key that helps the learner benefit from the learning outcomes.
Learning outcomes-based assessments, continuous professional development, appropriate technical tools and technological integration in teaching and learning practice are some of the elements that still require special attention.
The pandemic has highlighted the need for greater edtech intervention to support the delivery and delivery of education through appropriate methods.
The need for hybrid, online, blended, flipped, discovery, experiential and other innovative learning methods has become essential and is greatly appreciated by the Fraternity.
Investing in technology to transform schooling
Analysis states that the US is spending more than $25 billion on K12 technology alone. It’s a long way for us.
We’ve put a tremendous amount of time into training teachers on how to use technology. Access to technology is still a challenge. Schools have been closed for months during the lockdown with no sign of a revival.
This had a huge impact on learning outcomes, student engagement, parent satisfaction, lost study and teaching hours and, to some extent, the derailment of the academic year.
Independent advisory board for the smooth implementation of educational reforms
Immediate steps to improve access to and quality of education are needed. Appointed an independent advisory board composed of private school leaders, educators, respected academics and industry representatives to ensure quality education is advocated.
This can ease the complexities of decentralizing the task of teacher recruitment, teacher education, content and curriculum management, professional development, career guidance, skills development, capacity building, parent interface, and more.
All this can initially be operated in a pilot model – something like the “100 desired districts”.
Promote the establishment of more private educational institutes
It might be helpful to involve private school educators to take on this major responsibility of teacher education and guide schools to benchmarking standards for quality and learning outcomes.
Out of 15.22 lakh schools, the unsupported private schools are only about 3.4 lak, according to statistics available as of 2016. This itself shows the increasing need for private educational institutions.
Very few states can match the gross enrollment ratio and provide quality education at the state and assisted school levels. Education spending needs to be increased and used for a strategic approach to work within an inclusive, participatory and partnership model.
Promotion of PPP through more spending on educational infrastructure
An increase in education spending is inevitable. Involving private partners to use the infrastructure and ensure the delivery of education is the best pilot that can be developed as a strategic approach to scale up quality education.
These pilot partnership models can work wonders by bringing quality, volume, process orientation and the best available technological integration.
We have a well-crafted new version of the National Education Policy at its core for implementation in the coming years. Significant expenditure is required in the initial stages of implementation.
– Articles by Naman Jain, Director, and Dr. CS Nair, Dean Skills and Capacity Building, Silverline Prestige School, Ghaziabad
Read: Union Budget 2022: Doubling this year’s education budget as golden key, here’s what experts have to say
Read: Union budget 2022-23: ‘New normal’ to continue, know pre-budget expectations for education sector
