“My politics have only one style, only one mantra and
only one focus and that is development. And it means that there should be
change in the lives of the poor people. Their children should get education,
their parents should get medicine. And there should be concrete house in place
of jhuggis,”
Narendra Modi, our Prime Minister said during Delhi election
campaign on Feb 4th 2015(1).
He said about education, health care and housing during Delhi
election rally to get votes from voters. However, in reality, his mantras are
unlikely true. This article is about his one of the mantra, i.e. Education in
the recent central government budget 2015-16 presented by BJP led government to
the parliament on February 28th 2015.
Educational Sector
Table 1 (Source (5)
Department
|
Revised 2014-15
|
2015-16
|
Department School Education & Literacy
|
Plan(Cr)
|
Non Plan(Cr)
|
Total(Cr)
|
Plan(Cr)
|
Non Plan(Cr)
|
Total(Cr)
|
43,517.90
|
3,287.10
|
46,805
|
39,038.50
|
3,181
|
42,219.50
|
Department of Higher Education
|
13,000
|
10,700
|
23,700
|
15,855.26
|
11,000
|
26,855.26
|
Total
|
56,517.90
|
13,987.10
|
70,505
|
54,893.76
|
14,181
|
69,074.76
|
At times, when government is expecting the GDP growth above
5% and crude oil price is less under $50 per barrel, government didn’t increase
expenditure in the public education sector, but government reduced the budget
allocation for the education sector marginally. Government allocates nearly
69,074 crore of rupees for this year, which is 1431 crore less compared to last
year. Last year, Rs. 70,505 crore was allocated in the revised budget, and
government reduced the funding in the education department by 2 % in this
year.
Table 2
Age Group
|
Population (Crores)
|
0-6
|
15
(Source 2)
|
Less than 18
|
47.2
(Source 4)
|
Less than 25
|
62.5 (Source
3)
|
Table 3
Age group
|
Population (Cr)
|
Amount per Person per year
|
Amount Per Month ( 10 Months as 2 Months Vacation
|
6-18 (School Age group)
|
32.2
|
Rs. 1319
|
131
|
18-24 (Higher Education age group)
|
15.3
|
Rs.1755
|
175
|
6-24 (Total Education)
|
47.5
|
Rs. 1454
|
145
|
10 % expenditure reduced in Department of School Education:
Everybody knew that school
education is the building blocks of child's future and future of this country.
There are nearly 32.2 crores children in India between the age 6-18, and they
are all should have been in schools. In the recent budget, government spends
just Rs.1319 per Indian child per year. The government reduced Rs. 4585.5
crores in this budget compared to the last year. The total expenditure for
school department will be around Rs.42,219 crores for this year, which is
nearly 10 % less compared to the last year. The government allocated Rs.46,805
crores for school education in the last revised interim budget.
90 % slashed in Mid Day Meal.
In this budget, there is great
reduction of allocation for the mid-day meal scheme. The central government
slashed nearly 90 % of allocation for the mid day meal scheme. Government
allocated only Rs. 132 crores this year compares to Rs.1, 296.5 crore the last
year (8).
Thriving private
school business
Recently, government implemented regulation regarding a
student-teacher ratio which is needed to be 40:1. When government is imposing
such rules, it is essential that government needs to increase the number of
schools and allocating more funds to the department of school education unlike
reducing the amount meant for it and asking state governments to look after the
educational sector. The sources of income for state governments are very less compared
to the central government. This budget reduction only helps private schools where
some schools are charging more than 1 lakh of rupees for teaching basics
alphabets and numerical in their kindergarten schools.
Children going to private schools
increased 40 % in rural areas in the last ten years
At
present, nearly 1 in 3 rural area children (30.3%) are studying in private
schools, already 40 % increased compared to the last ten years. In urban areas,
it is much higher. Around 75 % children are studying in private schools (9).
Government may cite reasons for reduction in allocation by saying quality
standards are not raised in government schools as expected. It is the duty of
the government to control, maintain and over view the quality standard in
education rather blaming the outcome of the system. It indicates that
government wants to cut down the expenditure by spending less in school
education, which will affect the future of the future generation in this
country.
Lack of evidence for private schools are better when compare
to public schools.
There
is no strong adequate evidence from research that private education systems are
good compared to public education in developing countries.
Below
are some of the findings regarding private schools in developing countries according
to UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), (10)
1)
“Private school pupils may achieve better
learning outcomes when compared with state schools. However, there is no
adequate evidence for it.
2)
"It is also stated that many children may
not be achieving basic competencies even in private schools".
3)
The cost of education delivery is lower in
private schools than state schools often due to lower salaries for private
school teachers compared with their government school counterparts
From this it is clear that state sponsor schools
can perform better compared to private running schools
Higher Education in India:
In order to boost investment from foreign players,
government is trying to project as if they are allocating more amount of money
in higher education in India. They didn’t actually increase the investment,
they have taken the allocation which is meant for primary education department
and re distributed to higher education department. There are 15 crore of people
in the age group between which is 18-24 which
is nearly 10 % of the population qualifies for higher education in India.
Government is spending nearly 1755 rupees per person annually.
India's Higher education is $100 Billion Market
It was estimated that Indian education market is about Rs
675,000 crore ($109.84 billion) in this year. However, government is spending
around 9.7 % of the country's requirement. It shows that private players
continue to use the opportunity from lack of government investment in the
educational sector to get a piece of market share in 600,000 crores business.
According to Yogendra Yadav, at present expelled from AAP party
is also a former member of the University Grants Commission (UGC). He once said
that “more than 100 MPs actually own or run private higher educational
institutions and HRD ministry (that covers education) actually nominated people
running private educational institutes to the UGC (responsible for setting
educational standards)”.
Since politicians are running private-education
institutions, it is obvious that they frame rules according to their advantage
rather thinking about common people. The private players will continue to
dominate the higher education in this country, because of lack of funding from
government. We can see the results as many new colleges are getting started
every year. The aim is not to help students to get knowledge but likely to
usurp money from parents who are willing to pay more amounts for their
children's education.
Raise of Social Economical issues
BBC documentary India's Daughter on Gang rape held in Delhi
in 2012 provides insight about victim and accused family's social and
economical backgrounds. Victim’s parents sold their agricultural lands to
support their daughter’s education. She also worked in a call center to meet
their educational expenses. On the other side, all the accused didn’t have
proper school education. It just a sample picture of economic and social situation in this country. One section among the people is selling their asset to meet their
children higher education expenditure so that their children will have a better
future. On the other side, people without proper school education, are turning
into criminals. These kinds of scenarios can be reduced or removed, only if the government take priority steps to improve the educational system in this
country.
Sustainable-Development – Emphasis on
children education.
The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) government led by Narendra
Modi often uses the word “Development” in their propaganda. For them,
development means bringing more investment to the country, relaxing rules and
cutting down red tapes in bureaucracy to make sure investors shouldn't be at
loss and helping them to get more returns on investment.
But according to UN, development will sustain only
if governments emphasis on education for all children is the foremost step for
a sustainable development alongside ending extreme poverty, hunger, and death
from preventable and treatable causes (11). From this it clearly shows that,
government development will sustain only if children education is taken care by
Conclusion
Indian economy will be greater than 2 trillion-dollar
economy in this year. However, government at present spends nearly 6 % of GDP
on total education and just 1.5 % of GDP on higher education. When India is
aiming to become a super power, they should increase the allocation of funds to
the education department for betterment of future generation's social and
economic conditions.
5 % reduction in corporate tax
Our government wants to reduce corporate tax to 25 % from
the present 30 % in coming years citing to have a competitive advantage among
other countries to attract investments. When develop nations want to increase
the allocation in education to turn their country’s economy towards the knowledge-based economy in the future. The knowledge-based economy is proposed
as a future economic model as development of low cost robotics and automation
in the manufacturing sector which will drastically reduce necessity of labours
in the manufacturing industry(12). India will lose the competitive advantage
compare to other countries in the longer run in the future if it is not provide adequate priority to education sector at present.
The aim of the
private educational institutes will be making profits rather than providing
quality education to the people. Only government can provide quality education
at lower cost. IITs, NITs, Regional government colleges, Kendra vidyalas are
the examples for the above statement. It is unclear that if our prime minister’s
main political mantra is children education, then why there is a reduction in
funds. From his actions, it seems that education may not be his main mantra.
References:
5)
indiadidac.com/blog/item/337-union-budget-2015-16-highlights-for-education-employment-and-skill-development
