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Putting Basic Education on the National Agenda

Plan and Non-plan Accounts

Government accounts in India are divided into two categories, ‘plan’ and ‘non-plan’. Plan figures represent funding for new initiatives or expansion of existing ones, while non-plan figures relate to sustaining past investments in the system. This holds true for expenditures on education as well. Non-plan expenditures in education have mainly taken the form of salary payments to those who work in the system such as teachers. New schools and similar initiatives come under the purview of plan programmes. Non-plan expenditures form the main component of expenditure on elementary education, with plan accounting for only 12 per cent currently.

There is, unfortunately, no composite ‘education budget’ in India per se. The education budget for the country consists of education components from the Union Budget as well as those from the budgets of states and union territories. Interestingly, in addition to the contribution of departments of education at the central and state levels, other departments also contribute significantly to the education budget. To provide an indication of the size of actual expenditure (as against what has been budgeted), the total plan and non-plan expenditure on elementary education in 1997-98 was approximately Rs. 21000 crore.

Although the share of the centre is relatively small, it is of strategic importance because it includes a large part of the total plan allocation on education. As discussed earlier, plan allocations are essentially meant to fund new, innovative programmes and expand existing ones. The central government, as a result, exercises greater influence over the future evolution of the system than its overall expenditure share might suggest.

Additional Requirement of Funds for Universalizing Elementary Education

According to recent government estimates, the additional requirement of funds to realize the fundamental right to education for every child is Rs 9800 crore per annum for ten years[6]. This figure, it should be emphasized, is in addition to current levels of spending by state and central governments on elementary education. The allocation of Rs 4304.7 crore towards elementary education in the union budget for 2002-03 is substantially lower than this requirement. Once again, there appears to be little recognition of the economic and social gains universal elementary education offers. This does not augur well for a democracy or economy of India’s size.

The union budget’s allocation to the Department of Elementary Education and Literacy for 2002-03 is Rs 4900 crore, up 22.5 per cent over the allocation for 2001-02. Of the Rs 4900 crore allocated for 2002-03, Rs 4304.7 crore has been earmarked for elementary education and the remaining for adult literacy related activities.

The allocation towards the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) — the overall programme of the Ministry of Human Resources Development for universalising elementary education in India launched in November 2000 — has increased threefold since the previous budget, to Rs 1500 crore.

The SSA aims to incorporate all existing programmes of elementary education in the central and centrally sponsored category in consultation and partnership with the states. Much of the increase in the allocation to SSA for 2002-03, however, appears to have come from internal redistributions between different programme heads and scarcely reflects a significant increase in financial allocations. For instance, nearly 40 per cent of the increase for SSA is accounted for by the incorporation of the Non-Formal Education programme (Education Guarantee Scheme and Alternative Education) into SSA and, therefore, into the SSA budget head[9]. The corresponding budget head for Non-Formal Education has, as a result, witnessed a sharp decline from Rs 399 crore to Rs 1.80 crore. In any case, Rs 1500 crore does not really add up to SSA’s projection of an additional Rs 4500 crores to be earmarked by the Centre per year for the Tenth Plan period (2002-7) towards universalising elementary education.

There has been a marginal increase from Rs 930 crores to Rs 1057.5 crores for the National programme for Nutritional Support to Primary Education. The purpose of the programme is to provide wholesome cooked / processed food to primary school going children, with an interim provision for the distribution of food grains to children in primary classes meeting a certain attendance requirement. However, the marginal increase seems to provide more for the interim scenario of providing grains and not for putting in place the various mechanisms required for making wholesome nutritious food available to school going children. This defeats the very purpose of the scheme — increasing the attendance and nutritional status of children.

It is especially important to review some of the measures taken by the Department of Women and Child Development, which is responsible for providing Early Childhood Care and Education to children across the country. Although the 93rd Constitutional Amendment (Section 21A) seeking to make elementary education a fundamental right does not cover children in the pre-school age group, research from across the world supports the expansion of early childhood care and education (ECCE) programmes. Given the cumulative, continuous and holistic nature of growth of the human mind, paying attention to the years preceding entry into school influences the extent and quality of the child’s response to school inputs. This is particularly relevant for first generation learners whose natural environment often fails to offer the time, space, resources, guidance or motivation necessary for learning. As per the budget papers for 2002-03, the "Government has universalised the ICDS (Integrated Child Development Services) scheme in the Ninth Plan and as on 31.12.01, 5652 blocks have been sanctioned". However, claiming universalisation in every block in the country is quite different from actually reaching every child. While the allocation for 2002-03 supports the expanded coverage of the scheme, it does little in terms of improving actual outreach and quality of the early childhood education component. Having stated that ICDS is universal, for whatever it is worth, the union government has cut off assistance to voluntary organisations working in early childhood education. This is unfortunate because it stifles the growth of a plurality of approaches to early childhood education, many of which are believed to be superior in conception and implementation to the ICDS.

In summary, the union budget for 2002-03 fails to provide adequately for the effort towards universalizing elementary education. At best, it seems to encourage the mechanical expansion of various schemes, with little attention to quality. The stance taken on cutting off support to voluntary organizations working in early childhood education is particularly worrying. Given the tightly constrained financing of state governments for education, it is important that the centre takes greater initiative in investing in elementary education. It is unfortunate that the present scenario should prevail in a country where elementary education is in the process of being made a Fundamental Right in the Constitution.

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