Karnataka - Bangalore

Education not receiving much focus in budgets

BANGALORE: Education, which is a vital tool for improving the human development index of the State, has not been receiving a high percentage of allocation in the State Budget over the years. In fact, expenditure on general education as a percentage of the total expenditure in the State has declined from 17 per cent in 2000-01 to around 13 per cent in 2007-08.

Although the Medium Term Fiscal Plan for 2007-11 says that the State was committed to earmarking substantial outlays under both revenue and capital heads of high priority development expenditure, revenue expenditure alone accounted for around 98 per cent of the total expenditure on general education.

While the nominal expenditure showed a continued trend of increase over the years, expenditure in real terms showed an actual decline initially between 2000-01 and 2002-03. The nominal expenditure on education was Rs. 3,355.69 crore (17.07 per cent) in 2000-2001 and Rs. 6,428.10 crore (12.90 per cent) in 2007-08, according to a document prepared by the Centre for Budget and Policy Studies, Bangalore.

Nominal expenditure on education was 14.82 per cent in 2001-02, 12.09 per cent in 2002-03, 10.43 per cent in 2003-04, 11.73 per cent in 2004-05, 13.25 per cent in 2005-06 and 12.28 per cent in 2006-07, the document noted.

The low real growth rate of education expenditure indicated that most of the increase went towards salary payments, particularly after the pay scale revisions, with little priority given for improving infrastructure in the sector.

The decrease in allocation is happening even as the number of schools are on the rise. While the State had a total of 46,503 primary, secondary and high schools in 2005-06, the number has gone up to 48,987 in 2007-08, pointing to the demand for a higher allocation for infrastructure and manpower. As many as 92,882 teachers are appointed in these schools. According to the latest child census, 72,365 children in Karnataka remain outside the schooling system.

Incidentally, 2007 was the deadline for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan’s mission of providing “all required infrastructure and human resources for providing eight years of free, compulsory, relevant and quality education are in place by 2007”. The target is yet to be met in totality.

“Developments in the area of education thus are impossible unless the situation is corrected, and the infrastructure is provided in addition to good teachers,” says the document, calling for an increase in allocations to education beyond the amount paid as salaries.

Nearly 85 per cent of the overall expenditure on general education was spent on elementary and secondary education and the rest on university and higher education. Expenditure on adult education, language development and general expenses was negligible.

The document revealed that better performing districts have been allocated higher amounts, as compared to the poor performers with lower allocations to improve their status. In fact, the recent Karnataka School Quality Assessment Organisation’s test showed Udupi in the third place, while Chitradurga occupies the 26th place, pointing to warped priorities in allocation.

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