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UPA government has insisted from the very start that
it would lay a lot of emphasis on education. Many of
the initiatives undertaken and measures implemented
during UPA-I were precisely focussed around enhancing
the education of the people and the knowledge capacity
of the country, even though it could be argued that
the results have not been commensurate with expectation.
But during UPA-II, somehow it seems that the central
government has lost the plot. Whether it be the lacklustre
approach to the Right to Education Act, which has finally
been passed even though not yet properly notified, or
the haphazard and increasingly problematic interventions
in higher education, the necessary drive and determination
seem to be missing.
This is only too evident in Budget 2011-12, which really
does not do enough towards ensuring the financial resources
for the commitments already made by the Centre. In his
Budget Speech, the Finance Minister made much of the
substantial increase in plan allocation for social services,
and indeed, at Rs 26,000 crore it does seem significant,
given the paltry nature of increases in this area in
the past. But non-plan revenue expenditure on social
sectors is actually slated to be cut by nearly Rs 6,000
crore, so the increase is not as much has been trumpeted.
Within this, education gets only Rs 11,300 crore and
the bulk of this goes to school education and literacy
(Rs 8307 crore). The renewed focus on literacy campaigns,
with the provision of increased funds for this purpose,
is certainly to be welcomed, since this was an area
that has been greatly and unjustly neglected in the
recent past, even though a large proportion of our population
is still functionally illiterate. But the increased
allocation for school education is completely insufficient
given the promise of universal elementary education
that has been made a constitutional obligation by the
Right to Education Act.
This suggests that the financial burden of ensuring
the right to education is to be thrust on the state
governments. This is quite unjustified given that a
central legislation is forcing state governments to
undertake additional expenditures, which may not be
feasible for many poorer states where there is a large
backlog of children out of school. Further, since many
state governments are already facing fiscal crises because
of the impact of the crisis in the previous year, they
will find it difficult to raise the required resources.
In fact, the increase in total support from the Centre
to state and UT plans is less than Rs 6500 crore, which
is completely inadequate for the most obvious needs
of health, education, housing and other infrastructure.
In fact, this increase of around 7.5 per cent over the
previous year's spending will barely keep pace with
inflation and is well below the projected increase in
GDP.
In higher education, the central government has promised
to open 30 new universities and improve facilities for
existing universities. But the budgetary allocation
has gone up by only around Rs 3000 crore, which is barely
enough to set up one university that provides facilities
that would be considered essential to meet the best
international standards. So it is not really clear what
the government is proposing for education, if the allocations
are still so meagre.
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