Dr. Manasvi M Kamat
In its Lok Sabha election manifesto released on Tuesday afternoon, the Congress Party promised ‘to double the allocation for education to 6 per cent of GDP in five years’ if voted to power.
The manifesto, titled ‘Jan ki Aawaaz’, says the party will lay down the path for higher education funding in the regular budget for 2019-20, to be presented after the formation of the next government. Public spending on education has historically remained below the 3% mark and if promises made by the Congress is adopted in letter and spirit, it could prove to be a major boost for education sector in India.
Public spending on education includes direct expenditure on educational institutions as well as educational-related public subsidies given to households and administered by educational institutions. This includes expenditure on schools, universities and other public and private institutions delivering or supporting educational services. This indicator is shown as a percentage of GDP, divided by primary, primary to post-secondary non-tertiary and tertiary levels and shows the priority given by governments to education relative to other areas of investment, such as health care, social security, defence and security.
If one looks at the trend of public expenditure on education as a percentage of GDP in the past it is evident that our achievement was never even closer to target. At the inception of planning in 1951-52, India was spending 0.7% and by 2004-05 budget estimates increased to 3.5%. In subsequent years and according to ‘Economic Survey of India 2017-18’, total expenditure on education, in both Centre and State, accounted for a mere 2.7% of the GDP.
Under the current dispensation, school education expenditure dropped to 2.8% of the GDP in 2014-15 , 2.4% in 2015-16, 2.6% in 2016-17, and 2.7% in 2017-18, after a high of 3.1% over the course of four years from 2010-11 to 2013-14. Expenditure on education was 2.8% of the GDP in 2014-15 under the Modi government, according to the above Survey.
As a share of the union budget, the budget allocation for MHRD has always remained below 5% of the total budget since the year 2011-12. While the budget estimates for HRD ministry accounted for 5.03% of the total budget in 2011-12, it fell 4.77% in 2013-14, after which the Congress-led UPA was thrown out of power. In 2014-15, the allocation came down to 4.61% of the Union Budget, and subsequently fell to 3.88% in 2015-16.
In the following years, HRD budget shrank to 3.65, 3.71 and 3.48% in 2016-17, 2017-18, and 2018-19 budget estimates.
The growth in public spending on education is thus neither smooth nor remarkable, showing that it would be an uphill task to bring it up for any government that comes to power.
It was the Kothari Education Commission that had earlier recommended an allocation of 6% of GDP on education. Though the 6% norm does not have much sanctity, the estimate was made long ago by the above education commission as the requirement based on somewhat austere estimates of growth in enrollment, per student expenditure and other parameters at that point of time. Of late, the NITI Aayog in its report titled: ‘Strategy for New India @ 75’ published in December last year said that India should be spending 6% of the GDP on education by 2022.
Interestingly, although allocation for education has expanded in monetary terms, it has consistently seen a decline as a share in the Union Budget undermining the work done in getting more children into school, and its prospects for improving its poor quality of higher education. In the last budget 2019-20 presented by Modi government, HRD budget was just 3.37% of the total budget of Rs 27,84,199.55 crore.
Also compared to its peers, India spends the least on education. Amongst BRICS nations, despite a significant growth in GDP, the monies devoted to education remains low for China and India.
Though the present government gave considerable impetus to education infrastructure by adding as many as seven IITs, seven IIMs, two NITs three central universities and 125 Kendriya Vidyalayas the current funding is inadequate.
The massive demand-supply gap in the quality of education in India needs the kind of investments it deserves. Within primary education, the success of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan with 100% enrolment only means that the focus should now shift towards enhancing teaching-learning outcomes. The Rashtriya Ucchatir Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) has given much needed energetic impetus to States which otherwise starved of funds for pumping in higher education segment.
The component of capital expenditure for asset upkeep and maintainence of infrastructure, to support research and fund new knowledge creation in languages, physical science and vocational training has to be enhanced over time. The IIT’s and the IIM’s can fund for themselves but nor the primary sector. It’s high time that the physical infrastructure at primary levels be supported and the component of teacher-training for long neglected also needs dose for revival.
Most of the developed world spends around 4.5 to 6% of GDP on education sector realizing the benefit education has on society. It’s time all political parties in India also realize the importance, and live by the promise they make.
