Education remains focus of Delhi budget, city to get two new universities

The Delhi govt has allocated Rs 15,601 crore, 26% of the total budget, for the education sector in its budget for the 2019-20 fiscal. Of the total allocated, Rs 7,818 crore will be used for various plans and schemes.

The Delhi government has allocated Rs 15,601 crore, 26% of the total budget, for the education sector in its budget for the 2019-20 fiscal. This was the fifth time in a row that the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) government has allocated the highest share of the budget to the education sector. Of the total allocated, Rs 7,818 crore will be used for various plans and schemes.

This was the fifth time in a row that the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) government has allocated the highest share of the budget to the education sector.(File Photo)

The budgetary allocation includes administrative expenditures such as payment of salaries to teachers and other departments (such as PWD) that coordinate with the education department on various schemes. The focus of this year’s budget was on strengthening the status of higher and technical education in Delhi, with the government proposing to set up two new universities — University of Applied Sciences and a University for Teachers’ Training.

While presenting the budget on Tuesday, finance minster Manish Sisodia, who also holds the education portfolio, said, “Education is the first priority of our government and it will continue to be so as long as every child in Delhi gets a good education. Some say we do politics over education. Yes, we are doing politics over education. It’s our responsibility to bring education into politics and we are doing that.”

“There is no university for applied sciences in the country now. Due to this, the interest of students in skill-based institutes such as ITI, Polytechnic remains low. To resolve this, and to set a new benchmark for applied sciences, the Delhi government will start a ‘University of Applied Sciences’. There will be programmes for vocational education of three to 12 months in various trades, certificate courses of one to two years, diplomas, degrees, postgraduate courses, MPhil and PhD programmes,” Sisodia said.

The government also announced a new curriculum, “family business”, at the Delhi Technical University (DTU). “From next year, MBA (Family Business) will be started in DTU where children from the business community will be able to learn management skills for furtherance of their respective businesses. It will also be started in the other universities of the Delhi government,” Sisodia said. The course is already available in some B-schools such as IIM-Bengaluru and Indian school of Business (ISB) in Hyderabad.

DTU vice-chancellor Yogesh Singh said, “As per the direction of the government, we will be creating a special programme for those who have family businesses, be it a grocery shop or a manufacturing firm. We will teach these students how to take their businesses forward and provide jobs to others.”

The construction work on the GB Pant Engineering College and Polytechnic Complex at Okhla also received a fillip with the government allocating Rs 527 crore for this project. Once ready, there will be an additional 3,000 engineering seats in Delhi.

Government schools will each receive Rs 5-7 lakh to strength its school management committees (SMCs) in academic session 2019-20. The SMCs will also be provided an additional fund of Rs 1-1.5 lakh to help teachers who want to take up initiatives to make learning better.

An allocation of Rs 42 crore was made to provide seed money of Rs 1,000 to every student studying in classes 11 and 12 in government schools and Rs 5,000 each to those studying in the Delhi government-run colleges and universities to start developing their “business plan” under the upcoming “entrepreneurship curriculum”.