Digitization of Education Now Has Indian Government's Stamp Replacing the blackboard with the digital board is the major announcement made by the government to increase the digital intensity in education

The education sector has been a top priority for the Indian government. Keeping this in mind, the government over the years has been introducing various innovations to build a world-class higher education system. This year's budget was a step in the same direction, and Jaitley focused on improving the quality of education with the aid of technology. The government's goal is to assist and provide an opportunity to every Indian to realize his or her potential to the core.

Entrepreneur India takes a look at the key highlights of Budget 2018-19 with a special focus on the Education sector:

Betting Big on Technology:

Today in many schools, colleges, and universities, instead of a traditional blackboard, teachers, and faculties are using projectors for a better learning experience. Replacing the blackboard with the digital board is a major announcement made by the government to increase the digital intensity in education.

"Technology will be the biggest driver in improving the quality of education. We propose to move gradually from blackboard to digital board," said Jaitley.

A host of Edtech startups in India like BYJU, Nayi Disha, Meritnation, Rubix and EduKart are already working to change the face of education. This is certainly a welcome step by the government as it will help the startups to some extent.

Educationist Husien Dohadwalla, feels with this pace of investment and concentration towards the education sector, India will move closer every day, towards a higher standard of literacy rate throughout the nation.

"With an overall increase of 20.31% in the 2018 budget for Education, the sentiment towards the increase of quality of education by training the teachers and moving from the blackboard to the digital board, i.e towards a digitized environment in education is a good call by the government. Treating education holistically up to Grade 12 is a brilliant decision and will ensure that the future generations receive additional guaranteed schooling, that will do justice to their Right to Education," shared Husien Dohadwalla.

Commenting on the budget, Arun Rajamani, Country GM, Pluralsight India, a technology learning platform, said that technology-led learning is highly effective in closing the skills gap.

"India has been slower to adopt technology in learning than other countries.It is encouraging to see that the Finance Minister has announced an initiative digitize the teaching methods in India," he added.

Quality Education to Tribal Population:

Various education policies and government initiatives have also been mentioned in the budget to improve the literacy rate of the tribal communities. Jaitley will work with states to provide more resources to improve quality of education.

"Government to launch 'Revitalizing Infrastructure and Systems in Education' by 2022 with an allocation of 1 lakh crore rupees over four years. By 2022, every block with more than 50% Schedule Tribe population and at least 20,000 tribal people will have 'Ekalavya' school at par with Navodaya Vidayalas," said Jaitley.

"The schools will be part of the Navodaya Vidyalayas to provide "special facilities for preserving local arts and culture besides providing training in sports," he added.

"115 aspiration districts have been identified taking various indices of development into consideration. The quality of life will be improved in these districts," said Jaitley.

Integrated B.Ed programme for Teachers:

Apart from this, the government will also set up two new full-fledged Schools of Planning and Architecture in the Indian Institutes of Technology and National Institutes of Technology.

The other education measures announced in the budget was an introduction of an integrated B.Ed programme to improve the quality of teachers. Also, special preference to 20 Lakh differently abled children, orphans children in the education sector.