Last Update: 01 May 2024

Economic Survey 2022-23: The proportion of total expenditure allocated to education in India has decreased from 10.4% to 9.5% over the last 7 years^[1]

Research and Innovation Funds in universities have drop 50% since the introduction of NEP

Scholarships/Fellowships see a sharp DECLINE under the Modi Govt by upto 1500 crores since 2020^[2]

Backward Communities affected

-- Scope of Pre-Matric Scholarship reduced to just Classes 9 and 10
-- National Fellowship for SCs received 40% Cut; Rs 300 crore in 2021-22 but only Rs 188 crore in 2024-25
-- National Fellowship for OBCs dropped 50%; Falling from Rs 100 crore in 2021-22 to Rs 55 crore in 2024-25
-- Scholarships for Higher Education for Young Achievers Scheme (SHREYAS) for SC and OBC received a Cut

¶ Details

• Minority Scholarships: After the NEP 2020, minority scholarships have seen cuts of up to Rs 1,000 crore. These funds are crucial for socio-economically disadvantaged students^[2:1]
• Pradhan Mantri Uchchatar Shiksha Protsahan (PM-USP): This umbrella program, which bundles existing schemes for college and university students, is receiving about Rs 500 crore less than in the years prior to NEP.^[2:2]
• Maulana Azad National Fellowship (MANF) which was specifically for minorities, has been scrapped
• Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojana (KVPY): This scholarship for youths interested in pursuing general science programs has also been discontinued
• Scholarships for Higher Education for Young Achievers Scheme (SHREYAS): While allocations for SHREYAS increased for Scheduled Castes (SC), they still fell short of previous years' budgets. The scheme for Other Backward Classes (OBC) saw even larger cuts
• Though the NEP 2020 states that it will “provide more financial assistance and scholarships to socio-economically disadvantaged students”, budget documents show that many scholarship schemes, except for the post-matric ones, have seen substantial cuts. So much so that current allocations are far below budgets five years ago^[2:3]
• Interest Subsidy and contribution for Guarantee Funds, which subsidises interest on education loans, was allocated Rs 1,900 crore in 2019. Now, the PM-USP, which combines the interest subsidy fund with two other fellowships, has been earmarked Rs 1,558 in 2024-25
• Although the PM Research Fellowship (PMRF) has seen more funds since 2021-22, the overall funds allocated to financial-aid schemes for students were much less
• The Free Coaching and Allied Schemes for Minorities had received Rs 75 crore in 2019-20, but only received Rs 30 crore in 2024-25
• The Interest Subsidy on Educational Loans for Overseas Studies only received Rs 15.3 crore in 2024-25, half of Rs 30 crore in 2019-20.

¶ KVPY fellowship^[2:4]

• Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojana (KVPY) fellowship scrapped in 2022, which used to be a dedicated fellowship for students in science and technology
• Premier science institutes, such as the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISER) used to admit students through the KVPY test
• The scrapping elicited collective groans from the scientific community
• The fellowship is now subsumed within the INSPIRE fellowship, similar to the KVPY and also under the Department of Science & Technology
• Even the INSPIRE fellowships have not seen any influx of funds.
• Infact, Science and Technology Institutional and Human Capacity Building, the scheme which also includes INSPIRE, has seen a steady decline of funds to the extent that it received the lowest fund in five years in 2024-25
• The scheme received only Rs 900 crore compared to Rs 1,169 in 2020-21, prior to the launch of NEP 2020

¶ UGC and Higher education cuts^[2:5]

• Even the UGC, which disburses the JRF and SRF, received Rs. 2,500 crore in 2024-25, compared to 2023-24 when it received over Rs 5,300 crore
• The budget for Impacting Research Innovation and Technology (IMPRINT), a research initiative for the sciences, and its cousin, the Impactful Policy Research in Social Science (IMPRESS), are both seen to be slowly eased out
• IMPRINT, which received Rs 80 crore in 2019-20, only received Rs 10 crore in the latest budget
• Meanwhile IMPRESS, which received Rs 75 crore in 2019-20, has not received any funds at all
• The central government linked grants to NAAC ratings which, teachers argue, exclude many institutions
• Academics worry this may lead to fee hikes making higher education unaffordable for the poor and marginalised
• Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration (SPARC), launched to promote academic and research collaborations among top institutions, received Rs 100 crore in 2024-25, which was still 23% less than what it received in 2019-20

¶ Pre-matric scholarship for backward communities^[3]

• Scope reduced to just Classes 9 and 10
• Earlier scholarship used to also cover students of Classes 1 to 8 belonging to SC, ST, OBC and minority communities

¶ Conclusion

• A nation to propsper should use higher percentage of its GDP in the education sector
• India spends less than 3.5% of its GDP on education. This falls significantly below the target outlined in the National Education Policy 2020, which aspired for India's education budget to be at 6 percent of the GDP^[1:1]

@NAkilandeswari

REFERENCES:

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1. https://www.indiatimes.com/news/education/budget-2024-heres-how-much-india-spends-on-education-how-it-compares-globally-626429.html ↩︎ ↩︎

2. https://news.careers360.com/scholarship-research-fellowship-budget-cut-1500-crore-nep-2020-post-matric-nsp-ugc-phd-college-sc-st-obc-minority-pmrf-manf-jrf-ugc. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

3. https://news.careers360.com/Pre-matric-pms-scholarship-kerala-pressurise-centre-restore-class-1-8-sc-st-minority-pinarayi-vijayan ↩︎