• Budgetary spends increased from Rs.26,800 crore to Rs.31,036 crore in 2010-11

  
  

• In addition, States got additional Rs.3,675 crore for elementary education 

  
  

• “Saakshar Bharat” launched to improve female literacy rate which will target around 6 crore women

  
  

• NSDC approved 3 projects worth about Rs. 45 crore to create 10 lakh skilled manpower

  
  

• An extensive skill development programme in the textile and garment sector to be launched

  
  

• NSDC has a mission of creating 50 crore skilled people by 2022

“Education is vital for any nation’s growth and development especially when we are competing on a global platform. In the last budget the Govt had earmarked around Rs.32,000 crore and an additional Rs.4,000 crore to individual States for elementary education. Although a very encouraging move, there is a need for a PPP model in the sector not just to execute the delivery but also employ modern technology infrastructure across schools enabling rapid proliferation of world-class education.

While expanding access to high quality education is important, it is also critical to develop skills of the existing workforce to match the global benchmarks. Every sector in India is challenged with severe crunch of skilled workforce. 

The initiatives announced by the NSDC in 2010 will, no doubt, help fill the gap by training about 10 lakh workers in the next 10 years. But the gap is still widening and by 2022 India will need around 50 crore skilled workers across sectors! Therefore it is imperative that we gradually marry skills training with education through innovative application of technology in learning.

In Union Budget 2011, we expect the government to announce initiatives that will address the education and learning gap in India with a vision to create jobs as well as encourage self employment”.

The Author is Sanjaya Sharma, CEO, Tata Interactive Systems.