Education in Union Budget 2021–22

Union Budget 2021–22 comes as a big disappointment as it fails to allocate the required amount to undo the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The budget, yet again, has failed to provide allocation of 6% of the gross domestic product (GDP) on education, as promised in the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020.

It is strange that the budget allocated for Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan for 2021–22 is only ₹31,050 crore, far less than the budget allocated for 2019–20, which was ₹36,400 crore, and also less than the actual expenditure of 2019–20, which was ₹32,376.52 crore. It is also significantly less than the budget estimate of the previous year allocated for the overall school education budget under the National Education Mission (Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan and Teacher Training and Adult Education). This is only ₹31,300 crore (2021–22) as compared to ₹38,860 allocated in 2020–21.