Union Budget: National digital library to be set up; focus on teacher training
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the national digital library will make available quality books digitally to help children and adolescents overcome learning losses due to the Covid-19 pandemic
The government will re-envision teachers’ training and develop institutes of excellence at the district level for the purpose and set up a national digital library to make available quality books digitally to help children and adolescents overcome learning losses due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The national digital library for children and adolescents will be set up for facilitating [the] availability of quality books across geographies, languages, genres, and levels,” finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in her Budget speech on Wednesday. She said it will be device agnostic and accessible.
The pandemic wreaked havoc on basic education due to school closures. According to the Annual Status of Education Report released on Wednesday, the basic reading ability of children dropped to pre-2012 levels. This was visible in most states and across genders.
The basic arithmetic levels of children declined over 2018 levels for most grades. The percentage of children in class 3 in government or private schools who can read at the class 2 level dropped from 27.3% in 2018 to 20.5% in 2022.
Nationally, the basic arithmetic levels declined over 2018 levels for most grades. The national figure for children in class 3, who are able to at least learn subtraction, dropped from 28.2% in 2018 to 25.9% in 2022.
The government announced the setting up of a national digital university in the last Budget. The university is likely to start operations in June-July this year.
Sitharaman on Wednesday said states will also be urged to set up physical libraries at panchayat levels to provide infrastructure for accessing the national digital library resources.
She said the National Book Trust, the Children’s Book Trust, and other sources will be encouraged to provide books and other study materials in regional languages and English to these physical libraries to build a culture of reading.
Sitharaman said states will set up physical libraries to make up for the learning loss due to the pandemic.
“Collaborations with NGOs that work in the field of literacy will be encouraged to inculcate financial literacy. Financial sector regulators and organisations will be encouraged to provide age-appropriate reading material to these libraries.”
She said the teachers’ training will be re-envisioned through innovative pedagogy, curriculum transaction, continuous professional development, etc. “The district institutes of education and training will be developed as vibrant institutes of excellence for this purpose.”
She said 38,800 teachers and support staff will be recruited over the next three years for 740 Eklavya Model Residential Schools serving 350,000 tribal students.
She announced the setting up of 100 labs in engineering institutions for developing applications using 5G services. “To realise the new range of opportunities, business models, and employment potential, the labs will cover, among others, applications such as smart classrooms, precision farming, intelligent transport systems, and healthcare application.”
Last year, ₹1.04 lakh crore was allocated for education. It marked an increase of around ₹11,000 crore or 11.86% from 2021-22.
Jyoti Arora, the principal of Delh’s Mount Abu Public School, said the Union Budget perhaps mentioned teachers’ training, capacity-building programmes, and a culture of reading for the first time. “As an educationist, it is highly encouraging to see the Budget’s focus. The establishment of district training centres for educators will revolutionise both public and private school education across India.”
Arora said the setting up of the national digital library and physical libraries at ward and panchayat levels is like a dream come true. “National Book Trust has been entrusted with developing a reading culture by publishing content in several regional languages. This Budget will ensure the implementation of the National Education Policy, 2020, at the micro-level. At the same time, we expected some measures to support nation-building private school education.”
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