Telangana and Karnataka among lowest spenders on education, Delhi tops priority list
Government data show the two southern states spend only about 1.3 to 1.7 per cent of their economic output on education, well short of the 6 per cent the national policy recommends.
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India is described as the country with the world's youngest population, and the future of any country's young people rests on its education system. The National Education Policy 2020 recommends that the Centre and states together spend at least 6 per cent of GDP on education. But recent government data and reports from the RBI and NITI Aayog show the situation in many states is quite the opposite.
According to the latest government data, Telangana and Karnataka top the list of states that spend the least on education in terms of state GSDP and total budget. Measured as a percentage of the states' overall economic contribution, both states are spending only around 1.3 to 1.7 per cent on education. This is one of the lowest allocations in the country.
A recent NITI Aayog report on higher education shows the same picture. According to the report, states such as Delhi give education the highest place among their budget priorities, while states such as Telangana and Karnataka have fallen well behind on spending on higher education and school education as a whole.
In terms of amounts, the total Union education budget for this financial year has been set at about Rs 1.39 lakh crore. Among the states, large ones such as Maharashtra are setting aside a huge record education budget of about Rs 1.05 lakh crore. Many states in southern and central India are spending considerably less by comparison.
For instance, Telangana, which is among the states with the lowest ratio, sees its annual education budget confined to between about Rs 27,663 crore and Rs 44,054 crore. In contrast, Madhya Pradesh, at about Rs 52,917 crore, and Gujarat, at Rs 63,184 crore, are well ahead in total amounts. But states such as Telangana and Karnataka, which are considered IT hubs, are steadily reducing education's percentage share in the government's total budget.
Several administrative and economic reasons are being cited for the low education budgets in these states. The first major reason is that states such as Telangana and Karnataka are currently focused mainly on promoting infrastructure development. The second is the welfare and free schemes running in these states, which take up a very large part of the budget.
As a result, the governments do not have enough money left for the social sector, particularly for modernising government schools and colleges and recruiting new teachers.
