Union Budget 2026 Prioritizes Growth, Yet Education Quality Remains a Critical Concern
The Union Budget 2026 is being prominently pitched around themes of economic growth, skills development, and national competitiveness. However, when it comes to school education, the discourse continues to be dominated by traditional access metrics—more classrooms, higher enrolment rates, and broader coverage. Education leaders across India are now vocally arguing that the real test for the education system is no longer about access alone, but about tangible learning outcomes and quality.
The Translation Gap: From Policy Intent to Classroom Impact
Every Union Budget arrives with a familiar set of ambitious promises—growth, skilling, and competitiveness—often delivered through confident aggregate figures. School education, when it does appear in budgetary discussions, is usually framed through the lens of access: constructing new classrooms, boosting enrolment numbers, and expanding coverage. What is discussed less frequently, and arguably more critically, is the harder question of whether learning quality, teacher capability, and institutional depth are keeping pace with the massive scale of India's education system itself.
The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 recognized this fundamental imbalance early in its formulation. Its strong emphasis on learning outcomes, pedagogical reform, assessment changes, and teacher capacity building marked a deliberate and significant shift away from the traditional enrolment-first thinking. However, as education leaders point out, policy architecture, no matter how well-designed, does not execute itself. The next crucial phase of education reform depends not on fresh declarations of intent, but on whether public investment is willing to stay the course—patiently, predictably, and at a meaningful scale.
It is precisely this translation gap, between lofty policy ambition and on-ground classroom reality, that education leaders are now urging the Union Budget 2026 to directly confront and address.
Sustained Investment in Teachers and Pedagogy is Essential
Articulating this pressing concern, Ms. Arti Dawar, CEO of Shiv Nadar School, states, "As India advances the goals of the NEP 2020, school education requires sustained investment in teacher training, leadership development, and institutional capacity-building to translate policy intent into genuine classroom impact."
She emphasizes that transforming India's vast education system fundamentally depends on empowering educators. "Transforming India’s education system depends on empowering our educators with contemporary pedagogical skills and subject expertise," Dawar asserts.
Calling for structured, continuous professional development programs, she adds, "The budget must prioritise comprehensive professional development programs that encompass digital pedagogy, competency-based teaching methods, and the integration of emerging technologies." She notes that the return on this investment is exceptionally high, as every trained educator impacts thousands of students throughout their career, making teacher development a critical multiplier for achieving NEP 2020's transformative vision.
Early Industry Exposure and Future-Ready Skills
One of the recurring gaps in India’s education-to-employment pipeline is the late introduction of meaningful workplace exposure. According to Dawar, the Budget must recognize that employability does not begin in college—it is shaped much earlier in a student's academic journey.
"Early integration of industry partnerships and skill-based training will be instrumental in preparing students for evolving workforce demands. We need structured internship programs, mentorship initiatives, and investments in technology-driven solutions," she notes. She adds that such collaborations are not peripheral to schooling but are directly linked to national goals, aligning with both Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) enhancement objectives and India's broader economic competitiveness aims.
With automation and generative AI rapidly reshaping industries, education experts increasingly warn against treating future skills as an mere "add-on" subject. Dawar argues that foundational skills—critical thinking, digital literacy, and problem-solving—must be embedded early in the schooling process.
"The foundation of employability is often built early in schools. Early exposure to critical thinking, digital literacy, and real-world problem-solving must be prioritised," she says. She points to curriculum reform as a key lever, advocating for increased support for curriculum modernisation and industry-aligned learning frameworks to prepare students for skill demands shaped by technology and AI.
Addressing the Digital Divide for Equitable Education
While digital learning infrastructure expanded rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic, access remains starkly uneven—creating new hierarchies between well-connected and digitally disconnected classrooms. For Dawar, Budget priorities must explicitly and decisively address this growing divide.
"Digital infrastructure has become foundational to equitable school education. Universal access to devices, reliable connectivity, and high-quality, locally relevant content are essential to bridging the urban–rural divide," she states.
The risk, she argues, is that technology could inadvertently deepen social and educational exclusion if left solely to market forces. "Budgetary focus on digital equity will ensure that technology serves as an enabler of inclusion rather than a differentiator, allowing students across geographies to participate meaningfully in modern learning ecosystems," Dawar adds.
In conclusion, as Union Budget 2026 takes shape with its focus on macro-economic growth, the call from the education sector is clear: sustained, targeted investment in teacher empowerment, early skill development, and digital equity is not just an educational imperative, but a foundational requirement for building a truly competitive and skilled future workforce for India.
