Education Budget 2025: 50,000 Atal Tinkering Labs, IITs Expansion, and Key Reforms Announced

Education Budget 2025: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the highly anticipated Union Budget 2025, making several important announcements for the education sector on February 1, 2025. People were eagerly awaiting important policy changes and an increase in funding for education, especially in higher education, skill development, digital learning, and research.

The day before the budget, the government released the Economic Survey 2024-25 in Parliament. The survey revealed that India’s school education system serves 24.8 crore students in 14.72 lakh schools, with 98 lakh teachers (UDISE+ 2023-24). Government schools make up 69% of all schools, enrolling half of the students and employing 51% of teachers. Private schools account for 22.5% of schools, enrolling 32.6% of students and employing 38% of teachers.

The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 aims to achieve 100% Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) by 2030. Currently, GER is almost universal at the primary level (93%), and efforts are being made to improve enrolment at the secondary (77.4%) and higher secondary (56.2%) levels. 

Here are some of the major key announcements in the education sector:

1. In the next 5 years, 50,000 Atal Tinkering Labs will be established to foster a scientific mindset in young minds.
2. The National Institute of Food Technology and Management will be established in Bihar to increase farmers' income, offer skill development opportunities, and create jobs for the youth.
3. In her Budget 2025 speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the creation of five National Centres for Excellence in Skilling to bring global expertise.
4. FM Sitharaman also introduced the Bharatiya Bhasha Pushtak scheme to offer digital versions of Indian language books for schools and higher education.
5. She proposed removing the Tax Collected at Source (TCS) on remittances for educational purposes, provided the remittance is from a loan taken from a specified financial institution.
6. In the next year, 10,000 new seats will be added in medical colleges and hospitals, with a target of adding 75,000 seats over the next five years.
7. The government will provide 10,000 fellowships for technological research at IITs and IISc, with increased financial support.

The Finance Minister made several key announcements focusing on AI in education, infrastructure development at IITs, and the expansion of medical education in the country.

Sitharaman highlighted that the number of students at IITs has doubled in the last 10 years and announced plans to add more infrastructure at the 5 IITs established after 2014, which will allow for the education of 6,500 additional students. The government also decided to improve hostel and other facilities at IIT Patna.

In terms of tax relief for the education sector, the government proposed removing the Tax Collected at Source (TCS) on educational remittances when the funds are sourced from loans taken from specified financial institutions.

For 2024-25, the government allocated a record Rs 1.20 lakh crore to the education sector, marking a 6.84% increase from the previous year. Of this, Rs 73,008.10 crore was allocated for school education, and Rs 47,619.77 crore for higher education. The school education budget saw a slight increase of 6.11%, with Rs 4,200 crore set aside for the PM SHRI scheme. Higher education received a 7.4% increase in funding compared to last year.