Reinvigorating Human Capital

The Finance Minister said that the National Education Policy (NEP) announced recently has had good reception, while adding that more than 15,000 schools will be qualitatively strengthened to include all components of the National Education Policy.
She also announced that 100 new Sainik Schools will be set up in partnership with NGOs/private schools/states.
She also proposed to set up a Higher Education Commission of India, as an umbrella body having 4 separate vehicles for standard-setting, accreditation, regulation, and funding.
For accessible higher education in Ladakh, Government proposed to set up a Central University in Leh.

Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Welfare

Government has set a target of establishing 750 Eklavya model residential schools in tribal areas with increase in unit cost of each such school from Rs. 20 crore to Rs. 38 crore, and for hilly and difficult areas, to Rs. 48 crore.
Similarly, under the revamped Post Matric Scholarship Scheme for the welfare of Scheduled Castes, the Central Assistance was enhanced and allocated Rs. 35,219 crore for 6 years till 2025-2026, to benefit 4 crore SC students.

Skilling

An initiative is underway, in partnership with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), to benchmark skill qualifications, assessment, and certification, accompanied by the deployment of certified workforce.
The Government also has a collaborative Training Inter Training Programme (TITP) between India and Japan to facilitate transfer of Japanese industrial and vocational skills, technique, and knowledge and the same would be taken forward with many more countries.

Higher Education Commission of India (HECI)

Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) will be set up as a single overarching umbrella body for the entire higher education, excluding medical and legal education.
The HECI will have four independent verticals – National Higher Education Regulatory Council (NHERC) primarily for regulation, General Education Council (GEC) for standard setting, learning outcomes, and a National Higher Education Qualification Framework (NHEQF) will be formulated by the GEC.
There will be Higher Education Grants Council (HEGC) for funding. It will be entrusted with the disbursement of scholarships and developmental funds for launching new focus areas and expanding quality programme offerings at HEIs across disciplines and fields.
Another component will be National Accreditation Council (NAC) for accreditation, which will be ‘meta-accrediting body’.

Eklavya Model Residential Schools

As per revised 2018 scheme, every block with more than 50% ST population and at least 20,000 tribal persons, will have an EMRS by the year 2022.
These schools will be on par with NavodayaVidyalayas and will have special facilities for preserving local art and culture besides providing training in sports and skill development.

Features of EMRS

Admission to these schools will be through selection/competition with suitable provision for preference to children belonging to Primitive Tribal Groups, first-generation students, etc.
Sufficient land would be given by the State Government for the school, playgrounds, hostels, residential quarters, etc., free of cost.
The number of seats for boys and girls will be equal.
In these schools, education will be entirely free.

Sainik Schools

The Sainik Schools are a system of schools in India established and managed by the Sainik Schools Society under Ministry of Defence.
They were conceived in 1961 by V. K. Krishna Menon, the then Defence Minister of India, to rectify the regional and class imbalance amongst the Officer cadre of the Indian Military, and to prepare students mentally and physically for entry into the National Defence Academy (NDA), Khadakwasla, Pune and Indian Naval Academy (INA),Kerala.
Today there are 33 such schools running and proposed for future covering all the states of the country.
The schools come under the purview of respective state governments and Ministry of Defence.