Survey Reveals Low Budget on Education in Schools in India

A survey conducted by Child Right and You (CRY) and Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA) reveal shockingly low budgets in school education in several states. The survey was carried out on different parameters like monitoring, teacher training, and community mobilization and training.

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It was found that some of the schools are not even allotted 1% of the budget under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan to carry out the above-mentioned activities. Subrat Das of CBGA said that although there is much discussion on the quality of education, but no government is investing in the system for improving the quality of education.

Of the ten states included in the analysis, the education budget on the share of the teachers training is less than 1% except Bihar, where it is 1.60%. Monitoring and inspections are also neglected. Even per-student expenditure is less than Kendriya Vidyalayas and Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas.

Of the 10 states, around 98% schools have a functional management committee. Even the states have spent very little on training them. Several state governments like Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh spend large amounts on non-government schools - as compensation and grants-in-aid for students enrolled in the 25% EWS/DG quota.

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Besides monitoring the functioning of schools, under the Right To Education, it requires them to clear school budgets and formulate development plans. But these states have spent little on the training of the teachers. The share of training of teachers under Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI) in the Sarva Shikha Abhiyan budget was less than 1%.

Das also pointed out a grave problem of unutilised funds in central schemes like Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and the SSA.