Even after much excitement on the right to education amendment, formulation of several draft Bills[2] on the implementation of right to education, Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, Mid-Day Meal and so on, the public expenditure on education in India have registered a decline both in terms of the amount allocated to the sector as a proportion of GDP and also in terms of priority expressed as the expenditure on the sectors as proportion of total public expenditure on all sectors. We set the benchmark year for our discussion as 2000-2001 because; the post 2001 period witnessed major interventions like SSA and Mid Day Meal in the Education sector. The public expenditure on education has actually declined from around 3.23 percent of GDP in 2000-2001 to 2.88 percent during the UPA rule. As a proportion of total government expenditure, it has declined from around 11.1 percent in 2000-2001 to around 9.98 percent during UPA rule (See Table-1).

As far as Union Gvernment’s expenditure on education is concerned, it has registered an increase during the UPA rule from around 3 percent of total Union expenditure in 2000-01 to 4.75 percent during the UPA rule.

However, such an increase in no significant way is sufficient to meet the promised 6 percent of GDP in education as the capacity of the state government to spend on education has declined over the period (primarily due to the faulty policies of the Union Government). The total state government expenditure on education as proportion of total state government expenditure has declined from around 18 percent in 2000-01 to less than 14 percent during UPA rule.

 Another point worth emphasizing here is that, the Union Government is increasingly relying on education cess to finance a substantial proportion of its spending on education. As per the available information, the share of Prambhik Siksha Kosh in total education funding has been around one third during the UPA rule. However, it has been the most significant source of substituting Union government expenditure in case of school education and literacy. As can be seen from Table-2 the incremental recurring expenses on school education and literacy has been much less than the PSK inflows (please compare column ‘e’ and column ‘g’).

Table-1

Combined Public Expenditure on Education in India

Note: Both revenue and capital expenditure on education incurred by the Centre and the States are taken together. Total Union Expenses do not include total central Assistance to State and UT Plans, Non Plan Exp in UTs without Legislature, Loans to Foreign Govt, Loans and advances to state govts, other loans, grants to states and UTs and Grants to foreign Governments. This is done in order to assess the total expenditure in the domestic economy and to avoid double counting.

Source: Computed by author from RBI handbook of Statistics on Indian Economy for state level data and Union Budget Documents for Union data

[1] Please read NSA Policy brief No-309: How the Working Class has Performed in the Turbulent Years of Liberalisation-A Priliminary Study of Working Class Income and Expenditure Survey1999-2000 http://www.nsa.org.in/Policybrief/309NSAResearchTeam1.htm

[2] It is worth mentioning here that even after almost five years of Constitutional Amendment effecting education as a Fundamental Right, the Union Government is yet to come out with a enacting legislation in the form of an enabling Act on Right to Education. Although a right to education Bill is floating in the policy circles, it has been highlighted by many organizations that it lacks basic elements of a fundamental right.

[Siba Sankar Mohanty works as an honorary research advisor and an honorary policy director on Social Exclusion and Discrimination with the Network for Social Accountability (NSA) and can be contacted at <ssmoh_1976@yahoo.co.uk >]