Broadband connectivity to all government secondary schools and expanding the capacity of Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are among the key announcements related to education made in the Union Budget 2025-26 announced on February 1.
In her budget speech, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also announced the government’s intent to expand medical education by adding 10,000 seats in medical colleges and hospitals in the coming year.
The total budget for education for FY26 stands at Rs 1,28,650 crore—Rs 78,572 crore for the Department of School Education and Literacy, and Rs 5,00,78 crore for the Department of Higher Education.
For comparison, the school and higher education budget estimate (BE) for last year, FY 25, was Rs 1,20,628 crore, while the revised estimate (RE) was Rs 1,14,053 crore.
While Nirmala Sitharaman, in her speech, said that for the Union government, “Viksit Bharat encompasses 100% good quality school education,” the increase in budgetary allocation has been minimal.
In absolute terms, the allocation or BE has increased by Rs 8,022 crore, or nearly 7%, but as a percentage of the GDP, the change is negligible. In FY25, allocation to the education sector was about 0.37% of India’s gross domestic product (GDP). This year, it is about 0.36%.
According to the Economic Survey 2024-25, released a day before the Union Budget, expenditure on education has grown from Rs 5.8 lakh crore in FY21 to Rs 9.2 lakh crore in FY25 (BE). But this ‘expenditure on education' pertains to expenditure on education, sports, arts and culture as well.
The Kothari Commission in 1965 and subsequent national education policies have repeatedly recommended that India must spend around 6% of its GDP on education. But the expenditure has consistently remained much lower. As per the Economic Survey 2023-24, the last time such figures were made available, expenditure on education has hovered around 2.7% to 2.9% of the GDP for the past nine years. These figures include sports, arts and culture under the umbrella of education.
The Union Budget for 2025-26 is the fifth budget since the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 was introduced. NEP 2020 aims for a 100% Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) by 2030. As per the latest Economic Survey, there are 14.72 lakh schools in India serving 24.8 crore students with 98 lakh teachers. Around 69% of these are government schools enrolling 50% of the students and employing 51% of the teachers.
According to the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) Plus 2023-24, enrolment of school students went down by nearly 37 lakh compared to the previous year. UDISE 2023-24 shows that the GER for secondary grades (classes 9 to 12) is at 66.5. GER is the percentage of the eligible school-age population enrolled in school in a school year.
The Samagra Shiksha, a merger of multiple schemes aimed at improving schooling opportunities and learning outcomes, has seen an increase in allocation this year. From an allocation (BE) of Rs 37,500 crore in FY25, this year’s allocation (BE) is up to Rs 41,250 crore.
Another key scheme for preventing dropouts, the Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM POSHAN) or the mid-day meal scheme, saw only a negligible increase in allocation (from BE Rs 12,467.39 crore in FY25 to Rs 12,500 in FY26).
Other announcements for education sector
Stating that the number of students in the 23 IITs has nearly doubled from 65,000 to 1.35 lakh in the past 10 years, Nirmala Sitharaman said that additional infrastructure will be created in the five IITs started after 2014 to facilitate admission for 6,500 more students. Hostel and other infrastructure capacity at IIT Patna will also be expanded, she said.
She also announced that 50,000 Atal Tinkering Labs will be set up in government schools in the next five years. These are labs that allow students to work with equipment to understand STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) concepts.
The FM also announced a Bharatiya Bhasha Pustak Scheme to provide digital Indian language books to students. She also announced a Centre of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence for education with a total outlay of Rs 500 crore.