Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced some interesting education reforms during the Union Budget on Thursday.
-The government has assessed learning outcomes of over 20 lac students in the country and has found the quality of education is still poor. Therefore, the government will devise a district-wise model to come up with innovative ways to improve standards.
-The government is launching Integrated B.Ed programmes for teachers while they are in service to improve the teaching in schools. The focus will be on moving from the blackboard to the digital board this year including diksha portals.
-The government will set up schools for tribal children in their own environments so as to facilitate better learning. In areas where 50 percent of the students comprise of tribals or where there is a minimum of 20,000 tribal students, an Eklavya Model Residential school will be set up which will function like Navodaya Vidyalaya schools. This will also help preserve traditional art and culture.
-The government will ensure focus on research bodies in premier institutions through RISE- 'Revitalisation of Infrastructure and System of Education' which will be launch with a 1 lac crore budget.
-The government brought back focus on its 'Institutions of Eminence' initiative, Jaitley said that the initiative has received a tremendous response and over a100 applications had been received for the same.
-This year there will two Schools of Planning and Architecture that will be set up and 18 such schools will be set up in IITs and NITs across the country.
-A 1000 students will be selected under the Prime Minister Research Fellow scheme, where students will be able to pursue their PhDs in IIT and IISc with fellowship, while they are expected to do a few hours of teaching every week.
-There will also be one medical college for every three parliamentary constituencies by upgrading 24 district colleges
