Education Budget 2025 LIVE: Sector Gets Rs 1.28 Lakh Crore, 10,000 Medical Seats, IIT Expansion & More

Union Education Budget 2025 Live Updates: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Budget for 2025-26 on February 1. The total allocation for the education sector in the 2025-26 budget is INR 1,28,650.05 crore.

The Department of School Education and Literacy has been allocated INR 78,572.10 crore, which makes up 61% of the education budget. This funding will be directed towards strengthening school education and supporting various initiatives aimed at improving the quality of schooling across the country.

The Department of Higher Education has received INR 50,077.95 crore, accounting for 39% of the total education budget. This allocation will facilitate the growth and expansion of higher education institutions in India.

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A day before the Budget, the government released the Economic Survey 2024-25 in Parliament. The survey highlighted that India’s school education system serves 24.8 crore students across 14.72 lakh schools, with 98 lakh teachers (UDISE+ 2023-24). Government schools make up 69% of the total, enrolling half of all students and employing 51% of teachers.

Private schools account for 22.5% of the total, 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 nearly universal at the primary level (93%), while efforts are being made to improve enrolment at the secondary (77.4%) and higher secondary (56.2%) levels.