Union Budget 2022: On Tuesday, the Union Budget 2022-23 was presented by the Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. In her budget speech, the FM announced certain initiatives for the education sector.

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The FM announced for virtual labs and skilling e-labs to promote critical thinking skills and stimulated learning environment. She also made the announcement for a digital university with world class quality universal education.

"One class, one TV channel' program of PM eVIDYA will be expanded from 12 to 200 TV channels. This will enable all states to provide supplementary education in regional languages for classes 1 to 12 to make up for the loss of formal education due to Covid-19 pandemic," FM announced.

The FM further announced that a competitive mechanism for development of quality e-content by the teachers will be set-up to empower and equip them with digital tools of teaching and facilitate better learning outcomes.

While reacting to the budget, Sumeet Mehta, Co-founder and CEO, LEAD said, "As an educator, I welcome the emphasis on creating digital and free-to-air channels of education. However, at the same time, the budget appears to circumvent physical schooling. I sincerely hope that is not the case."

Mehta added, "While online learning was inevitable due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it would never be as effective as offline learning, which brings out the best in students in terms of learning outcome and performance. Online education can at best only play a supplementary role in education."

The FM has also focused on the creation of 60 lakh jobs over the next five years in her speech. "The Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for achieving Aatmanirbhar Bharat has received an excellent response, with the potential to create 60 lakh new jobs and additional production of 30 lakh crore during the next digit five years," she said.

The FM announced that skilling programmes and partnership with the industry will be reoriented to promote continuous skilling avenues, sustainability, and employability. The National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) will be aligned with dynamic industry needs.

Furthermore, she announced the launch of the Digital Ecosystem for Skilling and Livelihood – the DESH-Stack e-portal. This aims to empower citizens to skill, reskill or upskill through on-line training. It will also provide API-based trusted skill credentials, payment and discovery layers to find relevant jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities.