Indian budget echoes US drive for primary education

Students at a school in India Mumbai – Arabstoday India’s new budget reveals the government’s commitment to developing education at all levels in the country. The new budget sees an increased allocation for primary education as well as an adoption of new models to develop higher education infrastructure such as public-private partnership. The budget also gives incentives to the private sector to invest in vocational or skills-development institutions.
Increased national spending on education suggests the government’s focus on the youth as crucial to India’s development.
However, these reforms do little to address originality and innovation in higher education according to comments by Najeeb Jung, Vice Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia university in Delhi. Jung commented that university courses across the board were too vocational and “job-focused”.
He called for more \"broad-based, good, solid education backed by original quality research\" at university level.