Union Budget Shows Cruel Negligence Towards Education: SFI
Student Struggle Editorial Team
Here is the full statement of SFI Central Executive Committee regarding the Union Budget 2023:
Union Budget 2023: Cruel Negligence Towards Education Sector
The union budget 2023 has neglected almost all pressing demands raised from the education sector in recent years. The budget includes no concrete declarations, which provide even an iota of hope for public education. The term ‘public education’ was not mentioned even once in the entire budget speech by the finance minister. The ignorance towards the education system is so blatant and a matter of alarming concern. The whole budget speech offers a feeling that education is no more a responsibility of the government.
There is a decline in the share for education to 2.50% of the budget estimate from 2.64% of the estimated amount of budget 2022-23. Also, the budget could not assure even 3% of the GDP to education, which is a mere half of what was promised in the new education policy. There is a decrease of Rs. 600 crores in the budget allocation for the national education mission. There is also a decline of Rs. 826 cores from the last budget in the distribution for education empowerment.
The declaration of recruiting teachers to the Ekalavya Model Residential Schools has been amplified. The government data has shown only 3.4% of schools in the tribal special-focused districts in India have ICT (internet and communication technology) facilities. This means the students in these regions are far behind with the educational facilities in the much-hyped ‘digital India’. This also brings a serious question of the digital divide existing in the country. There were also reports of many EMRSs suffering from poor facilities, lack of infrastructure and staff etc. These concerns have not even been addressed in the budget.
Many fellowships were either discontinued or numbers drastically reduced during the Modi regime. This also includes scrapping the Maulana Azad National Fellowship for minority students and various scholarships for SC/ST/OBC sections. There were promises made earlier that the number of fellowships would be increased. But there is no allocation in the budget for new fellowships or to compensate for the reduction that happened during the last years.
The All India Survey of Higher Education (AISHE 2020-21) has shown that the proportion of SC students dropped to 14.2% in 2020-21 from 14.7% in the previous year. The proportion of OBC students dropped to 35.8% from 37%, and Muslim students to 4.6% from 5.5%. The number of students in the Persons with Disability category also dropped to 79,035 from 92,831. All these disproportionate student ratios result from the anti-student policies followed by the central governments in the last many years and only intensify with every year. This is also the result of rampant neo-liberal policies implemented in the education sector, which led to higher privatisation of education and pushed the students of marginalised sections to further exclusion.
Nearly half of the students enrolled for class one are forced to end their education by the high school itself. The number of Indian students enters to higher education after completing higher secondary education is still less than 30%. We need more funding for higher education, new colleges and universities, government schools with better facilities in every region and enough support system for the students of deprived sections, including fellowships, free study materials, hostels, proper mid-day meal scheme etc. None of this has found a place in the union budget. SFI is its most vigorous protest on the extremely anti-student budget of the union government.
Released By
VP Sanu, President
Mayukh Biswas, General Secretary