The state students, who are pursuing or planning to pursue higher education, are happy with the benefits announced by the Union government in its Central Budget presented on Monday.
The union government has extended loan facility to all fields in education, including vocational courses, which students can join after schooling. Till now, such facility was restricted to students who pursue higher education like BE, MBA and MBBS. The interest paid on such education loans can be claimed as deductions in income tax under section 80E of the income tax act.
“It is good to see that the Centre is viewing all students as equals. My parents are planning to avail loans for me from the next academic year. I’m happy that I can avail tax exemption for the interest which I will be paying,” HT Krishna Kumar, a PG medical student of JSS College in Mysore, said.
“The Central government has finally understood our financial problems and decided to extended loan facility to all fields in higher education,” said Suneel BV, a MCom student of Bangalore University.
The Central step is to enable students from economically weaker sections to gain access to higher education. Experts said this would draw more students to higher education.
“It’s a good budget. Poor people used to get poor quality education because of financial problems and rich people got quality education. But now it’s all going to change as the government has extended loan facility to all fields in education. The move will remove the gap between the rich and the poor in the field of education,” said Prof MS Thimmappa, former vice-chancellor of Bangalore University.
“The extension of loan scheme will give all sections of society access to higher education,” Dr NR Shetty, president of the Indian Society for Technical Education, said.
Sometimes, even if students had access to higher education, they oftendiscontinued their studies because they were unable to pay the fee, he said.
However, the state primary and secondary education minister Vishveshwara Hegde Kageri was not happy with the budget.
“No special attention was given for primary and secondary education. They have totally neglected the primary education sector which is the main pillar in the education field. We have been disappointed by this,” he said.
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