-Dipta Joshi

The Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government’s third budget made a slew of announcements for the education sector which include the setting up of institutions for postgraduate medicine and music studies. The state’s Rs 4,27,780 crore budget for fiscal 2022-23 was presented by finance minister Ajit Pawar on Friday, March 11.

Aiming to make Maharashtra the first state in the country to hit the $1 trillion economy mark by 2025, the latest budget focuses on improving agriculture, health, human resources, transport and industry. The state has allocated Rs 2354 crore to school education, Rs 1,619 crore to the higher and technical education department, Rs 385 crore to the sports department and another Rs 2061 crore to improve medical education within the state.

Announcing the budget Pawar said, five percent of the district annual plan funds would be spent on creating and improving the zilla parishad or district schools run by the government. Another Rs 400 crore has been proposed to be used for the government run tribal hostel-cum-schools (ashram school). All government girl hostels will also have free sanitary napkin dispensing machines.

Aiming to ignite interest in the state’s iconic personalities like Sane Guruji, Savitribai Phule etc., a provision of Rs 3 crore each will be allocated to universities and institutions setting up study centres on them. The state will also provide Rs 1 crore to improve the village level schools where these personalities studied. Another Rs 77 crore has been set aside to promote the development of Marathi, the state’s official language and to set up a Marathi language Research sub-centre at Navi-Mumbai, near Mumbai.

The budget’s largesse to the higher education department includes the setting up of new post-graduate institutions in Mumbai, Nashik and Nagpur. A special Rs 100 crore allocation will be towards funding  the Bharat Ratna Lata Dinanath Mangeshkar International College of Music and museum in Mumbai. The government had already announced its decision to build the college on land owned by the higher education department within the Mumbai university’s Kalina Campus after the singer passed away February 6 this year.

The government has also budgeted Rs 615 crore to the skills Employment Entrepreneurship and Innovation Department in a bid to encourage innovation and start-up culture within the state. Rs 500 crore will go into launching innovation centres in the state’s six revenue circles (Pune, Nashik, Konkan, Aurangabad, Amravati and Nagpur). The government will also dispense skill development training to 5000 students from backward communities from Gadchiroli district each year.

The state’s budgetary allocation to education was Rs 2945.78 last fiscal (2021-22). This year, the government has had to deal with falling student enrolments in schools and colleges due to the extended school closures as well as the shift to online studies as a fallout of the COVID pandemic.

Also read: Union Budget 2022-23: optical illusion