Government Data Reveals Falling Budgetary Allocation For Education In Last 5 Years

As per government's data, the budgetary share for education sector is witnessing a downfall for the last five years. The data has been shared by the Minister of Human Resource Development, Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' in the Rajya Sabha today.

To Md. Nadimul Haque's question on details of central budgetary allocation for education for the last five years in proportion to the total Central budgetary allocation for all Ministries, Mr Pokhriyal replied that proportion of allocation for Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) to the total central budget was 4.61%, 3.89%, 3.66%, 3.71% and 3.48% during 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19, respectively.

This year, the government has allocated Rs 99,300 crore to education which is 3.2% of the total union budget. On February 1, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had presented budget for various ministries and sectors amounting to 30,42,230 crore.

In his reply, the HRD Minister also added that the expenditure on education as a percentage of GDP was 3.84%, 4.07%, 4.20%, 4.32% and 4.43% during 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19, respectively.

In the previous budget, when the government had earmarked 3.48% of the total budget for education and the expenditure in education was 4.43% of the GDP, the then Education Minister Prakash Javadekar had said it was the priority of his government to allot 6% of the GDP to education.

Citing the growth of expenditure in education since 2014 from 3.8% to 4.43%, Mr Javadekar had said, "This indicates we are progressing towards 6%". Mr Javadekar had helmed the Education Ministry from 2016 to 2019.

In the 39th General Conference of UNESCO in Paris on 'SDG4-Education 2030: Strengthening Accountability in the Implementation of SDG4', the former education minister had called for allocating at least 15% to 20% of public expenditure to education.

Educators have given mixed opinion on the budgetary allocation.

"While the increase is welcome, I would have preferred a higher allocation, considering that education in India requires a revamp. Every aspect of education, be it infrastructure, human resources, teacher training or quality needs special attention. By 2030, India will have the world's largest working population and as a country, we need to invest in our children's education and overall development," said Vineet Nayar, former CEO, HCL Technologies and Founder Chairman, Sampark Foundation.

"India would become world's largest working population in the world by 2030, but looking at all the measures/ steps announced in the budget 2020-21 & allocation of merely 3% of expenditure to the Education sector proved to be highly disappointing," said Raj Padhiyar, Founder & CEO - Digital Gurukul.

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