Education should be top priority in the Budget 2020

By Prachi Mehrotra

The education sector is among the key determinants for the development of a country. And education, especially early education, is the most important investment a country can make. In order to meet international quality standards in education and create essential educational infrastructure, the education sector needs to make huge investments. Hence the upcoming budget needs to take initiatives such as allocating bigger spending on education and push digitalisation in the education sector. There is also an urgent need for introducing comprehensive teacher-training programs with newer forms of learning with an aim to develop and build capacity for addressing the current learning needs of students.

Presently the services provided by an educational institution to its students are under “Exempted Services”. Thus educational institutions are unable to take GST input on several services provided by the different service provider (for instance GST on rent, part-time teachers’ fee on other curriculum activities, etc). If the Government moves education services from “Exempt” to “0%” the educational institutions will be enabled to claim such GST input and automatically helps to reduce the cost of education to the society.

With India set to be the next global educational hub, the government should lay a stronger foundation for new-age learning strategies. Overall, we expect budget to be progressive to revive the economy and create positive business sentiments by providing fillip through a boost in consumption.

(Author is the Executive Director - Kara Learning Pvt Ltd)