1. The importance of education in economic
development is accepted across the ideological divide in economic theory
and policymaking. However, what remains common to the recent phase of
market-oriented reforms in India and the earlier phase of state-led development
planning is the failure to ensure access to basic education for the masses.
The limited spread of literacy and elementary education till date along
with a miniscule proportion of the population having access to higher
education provides a pathetic spectacle, especially in the backdrop of
tall claims regarding high rates of economic growth and technological
advances achieved during the phase of economic liberalization. The post-liberalization
period has actually witnessed a gradual withdrawal of the state from the
sphere of education, adversely affecting both the spread as well as the
quality of education in the country. The advent of the BJP-led government
at the Centre in 1998 further witnessed the consolidation of two regressive
trends in Indian education: motivated attempts to subvert its secular
and democratic character; and reckless commercialization, particularly
of higher education.
2. Following the defeat of the BJP-led government in the recently concluded
Lok Sabha elections, a great deal of enthusiasm to reverse the process
of communalization of education seems to have been generated within the
policy circles. It needs to be understood, however, that the drive towards
such 'detoxification' would remain half-hearted at best, if larger questions
regarding the role of the state in education remain unattended. For instance,
even if the communally tampered textbooks of the NCERT are replaced by
secular ones, the number of schools which would adhere to such curriculum
is too scarce to be able to outcompete, let alone totally replace, the
enormous apparatus of school education put in place by the RSS and its
affiliates. Similarly, no matter how honestly the purging of RSS hacks
from the state-run institutions of higher learning is carried out, the
passage of the Private Universities Bill or even the continuance of the
current dubious practice of granting deemed university status to all and
sundry by the UGC, would pave the way for their eventual rehabilitation.
A genuine effort to reverse the process of communalization of education
would therefore imply reinventing the vital role of the state in this
sphere. That of course cannot be achieved without making a departure from
the marketization/commoditization paradigm, the scope for which has been
provided by the commitment to spend 6% of GDP on education made in the
Common Minimum Programme of the UPA government.
3. Table 1 below shows the combined expenditure of the Central and State
governments on education as a percentage of GDP in the recent years. It
can be easily observed that the total state expenditure on education in
the country has hovered around 3% of GDP, far below the 6% of GDP benchmark
set by the Kothari Commission way back in 1968.
Table 1 |
Year |
Central
and State Governments' Combined Expenditure on Education
as a percentage of GDP |
1999-00 |
3.3 |
2000-01 |
3.1 |
2001-02* |
3.1 |
2002-03** |
3.1 |
Source:
Economic Survey, 2002-03. |
Notes:
* Revised Estimate, ** Budget Estimate. |
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The inadequacy of resources has stemmed primarily from the unwillingness
of the Central government to undertake adequate expenditure on education.
Table 2 amply demonstrates the negligible proportion of resources spent
for education through Central Budgets in recent years, with the percentage
of expenditure on education never exceeding 2.5% of total budgetary expenditure.
Table 2 |
Year |
Expenditure on Education as percentage
of TotalCentral
Budgetary Expenditure |
1999-00* |
2.41 |
2000-01* |
2.49 |
2001-02* |
2.21 |
2002-03** |
2.39 |
Source:
Calculated from Expenditure Budget and Demand for Grants,
various years. |
Notes:
* Revised Estimate; ** Budget Estimate |
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The larger burden of expenditure on education is already being borne
by the State governments, which are almost without exception caught up
in a fiscal mess, thanks to the squeeze on transfer payments to the States
and higher interest rates charged on their borrowings. It follows therefore
that the promise of spending 6% of GDP on education contained in the Common
Minimum Programme can only be achieved through a stepping up of Central
government expenditure on education.
4. Despite the fact that the proportion of Central Budget expenditure
on education did not experience any increase during its tenure, the NDA
government proclaimed to have 'prioritized' elementary education by allocating
a greater proportion of resources towards it. This so-called 'prioritization'
can be seen from Table 3 where there is increase in the proportion of
total budgetary allocation on education spent on elementary education
(from 39% in 1999-00 to 43.96% in 2002-03) with a concomitant fall in
the proportion of expenditure on university and higher education (from
29.58% in 1999-00 to 17.34% in 2002-03).
Table
3 |
Year |
Expenditure
on Elementary Education as percentage of Total Budgetary
Expenditure on Education |
Expenditure
on University and Higher Education as percentage of Total
Budgetary Expenditure on Education |
1999-00* |
39.00 |
29.58 |
2000-01* |
37.74 |
31.02 |
2001-02* |
44.32 |
20.45 |
2002-03** |
43.96 |
17.34 |
Source:
Calculated from Expenditure Budget and Demand for Grants,
various years. |
Notes:
* Revised Estimate; ** Budget Estimate |
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However, this counterpoising of elementary and higher education, in the
name of 'prioritizing' the former, is nothing but an apology for not undertaking
adequate expenditure in either of the two levels. This becomes evident
from Table 4 that shows only a marginal increase in the expenditure on
elementary education as a proportion of total budgetary expenditure in
the recent years (0.94% in 1999-00 to 1.05% in 2002-03), which calls the
bluff as far as 'prioritization' of elementary education is concerned,
while there is a significant fall in the expenditure on university and
higher education as a proportion of total budgetary expenditure (0.71%
in 1999-00 to 0.41% in 2002-03).
Table 4 |
Year |
Expenditure on Elementary Education as percentage
of Total Budgetary Expenditure |
Expenditure on University and Higher Education
as percentage of Total Budgetary Expenditure |
1999-00* |
0.94 |
0.71 |
2000-01* |
0.94 |
0.77 |
2001-02* |
0.98 |
0.45 |
2002-03** |
1.05 |
0.41 |
Source:
Calculated from Expenditure Budget and Demand for Grants,
various years. |
Notes:
* Revised Estimate; ** Budget Estimate |
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Such diversionary tactics need to be strictly avoided. The Union government
should accept the fact that Central Budgetary allocation on education
is abysmally low for all levels and expenditure needs to be stepped up
for elementary as well as higher education.
5. Free and compulsory education was made a Fundamental Right for all
children in the age-group of 6-14 years through the 86th Amendment of
the Constitution enacted in December 2002. The law suffers from the lacuna
that the children below six years of age have been excluded from its purview.
Moreover, the constitutional obligation towards free and compulsory education
has been shifted from the State to the parents/guardians by making it
their Fundamental Duty under Article 51A (k) to 'provide opportunities
for education' to their children in the 6-14 age group. While setting
these anomalies right remains to be an important objective, what should
be of immediate concern is the financial commitment that this legislation
entails. The Tapas Majumdar Committee appointed by the government had
suggested a required expenditure of around Rs. 1.37 lakh crores over a
ten year time frame (1998-2007) to bring all the children in the 6-14
age group under the purview of school education by 2008. Contributing
its bit to the 'India Shining' campaign on the eve of the elections, the
Ministry of Human Resource Development had publicly claimed through media
advertisements that 3 crores out-of-school children were already brought
back to school after spending Rs. 16,000 crores under the Sarva Siksha
Abhiyan. It amounted to achieving 60% of the target in universalizing
elementary education (i.e. 3 crores out of the estimated 5 crores out-of-school
children brought back to school) by spending only 0.11% of the total expenditure
of Rs. 1,36,922 crores estimated by the Tapas Majumdar Committee. This
was nothing but a perfidious claim being made by the NDA government in
order to conceal its sheer lack of commitment towards universalizing elementary
education.
6. The budget estimates for total expenditure on education in the interim
budget placed by the NDA government this year was Rs. 11,062 crores, which
amounted to around 2.41% of total budgetary expenditure. Out of this,
the budget estimates for elementary education stood at Rs. 6004 crores.
The Tapas Majumdar Committee on the other hand had suggested an expenditure
of Rs. 17,000 crores in 2004-05 for meeting the requirements of universal
school education alone. The gap between the requirement and what the government
is willing to spend is so large as to make a mockery of the goal of universal
school education. It is here that the UPA government has to make a decisive
break from its predecessor. And it would do well to remember that the
mobilization of adequate resources for universal elementary education
would necessarily involve taxation of the rich and privileged. A cess
on corporate taxes, personal income tax and customs duties on luxury imports,
to mobilize additional resources for the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan can be a
good beginning as far as the first budget of the UPA government is concerned.
July 5, 2004.
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