HOW HAVE

STATES
DESIGNED
THEIR SCHOOL
EDUCATION
BUDGETS?

2016
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Copyright @2016 Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA)

and Child Rights and You (CRY)

Study Team:
Protiva Kundu, Gaurav Singh, Surajita Rout, Khwaja Mobeen Ur Rehman

For more information about the study, please contact: protiva@[Link]

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and

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Financial support for the study:

This study has been carried out with financial support from CRY and IDRC-
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Cover image: Freepik

 How Have States Designed Their School Education Budgets?

HOW HAVE STATES

DESIGNED THEIR
SCHOOL EDUCATION
BUDGETS?
2016

1
 Contents
Abbreviations 3

List of Graphs, Matrices and Tables 4

Message from CBGA 6

Message from CRY 7

Acknowledgements 9

Executive Summary 10

I. Introduction 14

II. Comparative Analysis of Educational Outcomes Across Select States 18

III. Overall Fiscal Space with the States 22

IV. How Much are States Spending on School Education? 24

V. Priorities Within School-Education Budgets Across States 27

V. a. Component-Wise Distribution of School-Education Budget Across States 27

V. b. Component-Wise Distribution of School-Education Budget Within States 32

VI. How Inclusive is School Education: An Exploration from a Budgetary Lens 43

VI. a. Intervention for Marginalised Children 43

VI. b. Intervention for Girl Child 44

VI. c. Intervention for Out-of-School Children (OOSC) 45

VII: Governance and Stakeholders 47

VII. a. How much Government is Spending to Enhance Community 47

Engagement with Schools?

VII. b. How Much do Budgets Contribute Towards Non-Government Schools? 48

VIII: Concluding Remarks and Policy Implications 50

References 54

Annexures 56

2 Contents
 How Have States Designed Their School Education Budgets?

Abbreviations
A Actuals NEP New Education Policy

ASER Annual Status of Education Report NER Net Enrolment Rate

BE Budget Estimates OBC Other Backward Class

CABE Central Advisory Board of Education OOSC Out of School Children

CAG Comptroller and Auditor General PAB Project Approval Board

DDGs Detailed Demand for Grants PTR Pupil Teacher Ratio

DIET District Institutes of Education and RE Revised Estimates

Training
RMSA Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan
DISE District Information System for Education
RTE Right to Education
GDP Gross Domestic Product
SB Supplementary Budget
GER Gross Enrolment Rate
SC Scheduled Caste
GNP Gross National Product
SCR Student Classroom Ratio
GSDP Gross State Domestic Product
SCSP Scheduled Cate Sub-Plan
KGBV Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya
SMC School Management Committee
MDM Mid Day Meal
SSA Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan
NAR Net Attendance Ratio
ST Scheduled Tribe
NCERT National Centre for Education Research
and Training TSP Tribal Sub Plan

NCLP National Child Labour Project UP Uttar Pradesh

Abbreviations 3
 List of Graphs, Matrices & Tables
List of graphs
Figure 1 Composition of India's Budgetary Expenditure on Education 15

Figure 2 Share of State Revenue Receipts in GSDP 22

Figure 3a Patterns of School-Education Budget 24

Figure 3b Patterns of School-Education Budget 24

Figure 4 Trends of Financing School Education in Select States 25

Figure 5 Change in Expenditure on Elementary, Secondary and School Education 26

Between 2012-13 and 2015-16 (BE)

Figure 6 States with High Number of Teacher Vacancies 27

Figure 7 Share of Regular Teachers in Total Teachers 29

Figure 8 Share of Teacher Salary in School-Education Budget 29

Figure 9a Share of Professionally-Trained Teachers 29

Figure 9b Share of Teacher's Training in School-Education Budget 30

Figure 10 Share of Inspection and Monitoring in School-Education Budget 30

Figure 11 Share of Infrastructure in School-Education Budget 30

Figure 12 Share of Incentives in School-Education Budget 31

Figure 13 Component-Wise Distribution of School-Education Budget: Bihar 32

Figure 14 Component-Wise Distribution of School-Education Budget: Chhattisgarh 33

Figure 15 Component-Wise Distribution of School-Education Budget: Jharkhand 34

Figure 16 Component-Wise Distribution of School-Education Budget: Karnataka 35

Figure 17 Component-Wise Distribution of School-Education Budget: Madhya Pradesh 36

Figure 18 Component-Wise Distribution of School-Education Budget: Maharashtra 38

Figure 19 Component-Wise Distribution of School-Education Budget: Odisha 39

Figure 20 Component-Wise Distribution of School-Education Budget: Rajasthan 40

Figure 21 Component-Wise Distribution of School-Education Budget: Tamil Nadu 41

Figure 22 Component-Wise Distribution of School-Education Budget: Uttar Pradesh 42

4 List of Graphs, Matrices & Tables

 How Have States Designed Their School Education Budgets?

Figure 23 Out-of-School Children by Socio-Economic Category 43

Figure 24 Share of Spending on Educational Intervention for Marginalised Children in 44

School-Education Budget

Figure 25 Share of Spending on Educational Intervention for Girls in School-Education Budget 45

Figure 26 Out-of-School Children at Elementary Level 46

Figure 27 Share of Expenditure to Mainstream Out-of-School Children in SSA Budget 46

Figure 28 Share of Expenditure on Community Mobilisation and SMC/PRI Training in SSA Budget 47

Figure 29 Distribution of Schools by Management 48

Figure 30 Assistance to Non-Government Schools in School-Education Budget 49

List of matrices
Matrix 1 Performance of Select States at Elementary Level of Education 20

Matrix 2 Performance of Select States at Secondary Level of Education 20

Matrix 3 Categorisation of Components of School-Education Budget 28

Matrix 4 Schools Meeting Select RTE Norms on Infrastructure in 2013-14 31

Matrix 5 Net Attendance Ratio for Girls at Various Levels of Education 45

Table
Table 1 Allocation for School Education by Level 56

Table 2 State-wise Revenue Surplus (+)/Revenue Deficit (-) as % of GSDP 57

Map
Map 1 Study States 18

List of Graphs, Matrices & Tables 5

 Message from CBGA

O
ver the last couple of decades, a lot of substantive research has been done on public financing of
education in India. In recent years, we have also seen some insightful and pertinent research on the
gaps in implementation of prominent Central schemes for school education. Yet, in the policy debates
on the issue of adequacy of public resources for school education in the country, the evidence cited
with regard to quantum of budgetary spending has largely been at the aggregate levels. We, at CBGA, have felt that
the intense debates on government financing of school education in India have happened with a somewhat limited
set of evidence; the evidence used in these important discussions has been especially narrow with respect to the
composition of school-education budgets in different states.

This could have been due to the limited attention paid to questions like: how different states are designing
the quantum of budget available for school education—in terms of priorities across different components—and the
implications of the design of school-education budgets on different parameters, including quality of teaching and
learning in government schools. In such a context, CBGA and CRY have taken an initiative to analyse the budgets for
school education across all states, covering all those departments that spend on school education-related services
or interventions, and at a disaggregated level of spending.

We are presenting the findings of this study in the form of a Fact Sheet, which shares some of the key
trends and numbers for all states, and this Study Report, which unpacks the composition of the budget for school
education across 10 selected states. These two study outputs address only a few of the questions in the domain of
government financing of school education in India; but they point towards a number of other pertinent issues that
require deeper scrutiny and discussion.

However, the findings of this study indicate clearly that India’s prevailing quantum of budgetary spending
on education is inadequate not just because it falls short of the benchmark recommended decades ago by the
Kothari Commission, but also because the paucity of funds for almost all important areas of public provisioning
of school education—be it availability of teachers, their training, their monitoring, interventions for children from
marginalised sections or those for strengthening community engagement with schools—is glaring in most of the
poorer states. The overall deficiency in public financing of school education could not only be held responsible for
gaps in coverage, and quality of outputs and services being delivered through government schools, but it could also
be a major causal factor underlying the weak linkages between outlays, outputs and outcomes in this sector.

A mere reprioritisation of the existing quantum of budgets for school education would certainly not help
most states address the deficiencies in their government schools system; there is clearly a need for a significant
enhancement of the overall resource envelope for this sector. But when a state does move towards an expanded
budget for school education, it would need to allocate the additional resources across the various components/
areas of provisioning in a manner that addresses the requirements more comprehensively.

We sincerely hope this Study Report and the Fact Sheet would provide some useful evidence for deepening
the policy discourse in the country on school education. We will be grateful for suggestions on how we can add
more value through our work in the coming years.

With regards,
Subrat Das
Executive Director,
Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability

6 Message from CBGA

 How Have States Designed Their School Education Budgets?

Message from CRY

T
his year, India completes 25 years of the New Economic Policy whose stated
purpose was to improve our country’s fiscal health towards growth and progress
for all, including our most vulnerable citizens: children. The budget, both at the
national and state level, is a concrete expression of the government’s intentions
and performance towards its citizens. Children comprise 40 percent of the total population,
and yet they receive a mere 4 per cent of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) to
themselves. India’s education budget has been stagnant for over the last 5 years, except a
relative boost brought about by the Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE), 2009.

It is a matter of grave concern that we have lakhs of children still out of the fold of
education, and, of those in school, only 33 children out of every 100 children enrolled tend to
complete Class XII. Along with addressing various socio-cultural aspects related to education,
it is equally important to make adequate budgetary allocations to ensure all children are in
school and availing quality education. The recognition of child as a distinct stakeholder in
the public discourse on budgeting, as well as a measure of state accountability, started only
a decade ago. It still remains a significant area of inquiry, as change for children has been
incremental, and resource deficiency has been central to the debate.

The year 2015-16 has been significant for the country with policy measures that have
changed the fiscal architecture of India. These are likely to have a direct impact on public
provisioning of education at the state level. It is pertinent at this juncture to examine how
states are prioritising their budgets in terms of allocations, estimations and revisions for
school education.

We, at CRY, strongly believe that adequacy of resources, including sufficient budgetary
investments for 333 million children (6 to 18 years), has tremendous potential in shaping
India’s children. In fact, when CRY was started in 1979, by Rippan Kapur, the very first project
it supported was on teacher training and education. Ever since, CRY has spread its mission
to enable the realisation of rights of more than 20 lakh under privileged children across 23
states in India. The learning from these experiences has only strengthened our conviction that
education helps in creating a sound foundation and is, therefore, crucial for a happy, healthy
and creative childhood.

CRY is pleased to initiate a study series with CBGA that examines public expenditure on
school education in the post-RTE era. It is interesting to note that all government departments
administering funds for education are scrutinised in this study, which I am sure will shed new
light on the way the state is planning and allocating financial resources towards ensuring the
rights of its great citizens, our children.

With Faith and Goodwill,

Puja Marwaha
Chief Executive,
CRY-Child Rights and You

Message from CRY 7

8
 How Have States Designed Their School Education Budgets?

Acknowledgements

W
e would like to thank Mr. Basanta Nayak, Mr. Daya Ram, Dr. Nesar
Ahmad, Ms. Pooja Parvati, Mr. Prasanta Pradhan, Prof. Praveen Jha,
Prof. R. Govinda, Mr. Ravi Duggal, Prof. Tapas Sen and Mr. Vikash
Singh for their valuable comments on the draft version of the report.
Their insightful comments and suggestions on the draft report, in the discussion
held on October 19, 2016, have helped us immensely in addressing some of the
lacunae in our analysis. However, we have not been able to incorporate a number
of very substantive suggestions made by them, which we will pursue as important
ideas for deepening our research in this field in the coming years.

We extend our gratitude to Ms. Puja Marwaha, Ms. Rajni Bakshi, Ms.
Vijayalakshmi Arora, and a number of other colleagues from CRY for their very
helpful inputs and suggestions over the course of this study.

We would like to thank Mr. Abdul Muiz, Mr. Adnan Ul Hasan, Mr. Apoorv Jain,
Ms. Devyani Singh, Mr. Imran Ansari, Mr. Khwaja Mohd. Wamiq, Mr. Khwaja Mohd.
Zaid, Mr. Mohammad Arsalam, Ms. Nomy Katta, Mr. Rajkumar Byahut and Mr.
Ramgati Singh for their invaluable contribution towards compilation of data for
this study.

We convey our special acknowledgement to the library of NIPFP.

We would remain ever grateful to Dr. Komal Ganotra, Ms. Anuja Shah and Ms.
Sangeeta M. from CRY for their constant guidance, support and encouragement.

Finally, we would like to thank all our colleagues at CBGA for their rich
insights and suggestions, which have helped us a lot in deepening our analysis.

However, any errors or omissions are solely our responsibility.

Study Team

Acknowledgements 9
 Executive Summary
Background As per the latest available data from MHRD, about 68
The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) will percent of the total education budget goes towards school
soon bring out a New Education Policy (NEP). The first National education. The remaining 32 percent goes towards university
Policy on Education was framed in 1986 and modified in 1992. and higher education, technical education and adult education.
The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) was launched in 2002, and In spite of school education receiving the higher share in the
in these 15 years, the Indian education system has seen several total education budget, India is yet to universalise elementary
changes in educational demand, structure, financing and education; the situation is worse in secondary education
outcomes. To address these changing dynamics, the MHRD (in 2014, the net attendance ratio [NAR] at this level was 52
has called for a revision of the policy. The broader focus of the percent). This implies that policy pronouncements for school
NEP is to improve quality of education and create avenues for education might not be translating into strong government
gainful employment. interventions on the ground. This is possible if there are major
gaps at the budgeting stage for the policy concerned or at the
In 1966, the Kothari Commission recommended that implementation stage.
total government spending on education be raised to 6
percent of Gross National Product (GNP) by 1986. The NEP In this context, it is pertinent to question how states are
endorsed this target, both in the original policy in 1986 and the financing school education and how has this changed following
modified version in 1992. Yet, at present, the Union and states the alterations to India’s fiscal architecture.
collectively spend less than 4 percent of GDP on education.

Although a substantial proportion of public resources Rationale

for education come from State Governments, one-third of Till date, there is limited information available in the public
resources are allocated by the Union Government. An earlier domain on the composition of state level spending on school
calculation on spending by 25 states on elementary education education. The information available is mostly at the aggregate
showed that State Governments spent 1.17 percent of India’s level. There is less information on major deficiencies/gaps in
GDP and the Union Government 0.38 percent of GDP in 2012- allocation of budgets for school education across different
13 (BE) (Jha, Parvati, 2014). states, as well as across different components within public
provisioning for school education. An appropriate analysis
A consistent decline in the Union Government’s share of all these aspects can generate insights needed to suggest
in the country’s budgetary spending on education has shifted corrective policy measures at different levels.
the responsibility progressively towards states. Further, in
the resource-sharing process, states compete for a larger This study is an effort to unpack the structure and
share of resources from the Union Government. Since the composition of school-education budgets across states. The
size of the cake from which each state’s share of education study tries to answer some basic questions like:
is to be sliced is relatively small, this competition sometimes
results in confrontation between State Governments and the  How much is a State Government spending on school
Union Government on the question of devolution of resources education?
(Varghese & Tilak, 1991).
 What budgetary resources have been allocated for/spent
The year 2015-16 was vital for the country in the on different components of school education?
domain of fiscal policy. Certain fundamental policy measures
have changed the federal fiscal architecture of India. These  What are the implications of the prevailing composition
include acceptance of the 14th Finance Commission’s of school-education budgets across states?
recommendation on increased devolution of central taxes to
states, reduction in the Union Government’s Plan grants for After the implementation of the Right of Children to
states, abolition of Planning Commission, etc. It is implicit Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE) in 2010, states
the changed fiscal architecture will directly impact public have brought about some improvement in school education
provisioning for education at the state level. At this juncture, in terms of infrastructure, enrolment, attainment, etc. The
it is pertinent to examine how states are prioritising their study examines whether states have injected more money into
budgets and allocating for school education. elementary education to accomplish the goal of RTE or it is

10 Executive Summary
 How Have States Designed Their School Education Budgets?

routine incremental budgeting. The study also tries to answer The resources available in a state’s exchequer is an
larger questions like how inclusive is the public provisioning for important determinant of its spending capacity. Since
education. While designing their budgets, in the planning and expenditure on education is more in the nature of revenue
budgeting process, are states taking into consideration the expenditure, the study looked at revenue receipts of the 10
requirements of socially- and economically-weaker sections of states for the last four years to gauge the fiscal space available
children like girls, Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes to a state relative to the size of its economy. All 10 states show
(STs) and Muslims? an increase in revenue receipts in absolute terms, but the
situation varies when compared with their respective Gross
State Domestic Product (GSDP).
Scope
The study tries to answer these questions through a detailed While the pattern of devolution of resources may
analysis of budgets of 10 states. The mix of states is intended indirectly address national priorities for education, their actual
to represent the four main regions of India, and cover both utilisation is the responsibility of State Governments. The
better- and poor-performing states in the education sector. pattern of financing of school education and the question of
The 10 states, in alphabetical order, are: Bihar, Chhattisgarh, its position in the overall development framework has been
Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, answered by looking at the three prominent indicators: school
Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh. education budget as percentage of GSDP, school education
budget as percentage of state budget, and per child and per
Initially, education was the responsibility of states. But, in student spending.
1976, education was placed in the Concurrent List, and became
a joint responsibility of both the Union Government and State Although the study shows that, in all 10 states, the
Governments. At both levels, besides the Department of School expenditure on school education has increased in the last four
Education, many other departments incur substantial amounts years, a break up shows that in states other than Karnataka
of expenditure on education. and Uttar Pradesh, the growth of expenditure in secondary
education is higher than that in elementary education.
Our analysis covers expenditure by all such
departments that report spending on school education in States having higher GSDP like Karnataka, Maharashtra
their budgets. These departments include Department of and Tamil Nadu are spending lower levels on school
Women and Child Development, Department of Social Security education as compared to the size of their economy, whereas
and Welfare, Department of Minority Welfare, Department of economically-backward states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh,
Tribal Welfare, Department of Rural Development, Department Rajasthan and Odisha are spending 4-5 percent of their GSDP
of Urban Development, Panchayati Raj Department, on school education.
Department of Public Works, Department of Drinking Water
and Sanitation, and Department of Planning. A similar pattern is observed when the school-education
budget of a state is compared with its total budget. It can
The study analyses the expenditure on school education be argued that states with better outputs and outcomes in
for 10 states at the most disaggregated level. Hence, the school education are not prioritising school education in their
Detailed Demand for Grants (DDGs) of all the above-mentioned budgets now. On the contrary, relatively poor-performing
departments have been analysed to capture relevant data states are prioritising education in their budget. These states
for four years: 2012-13 (Actuals), 2013-14 (Actuals), 2014-15 are also realising the importance of secondary education, and
(Budget Estimates), 2014-15 (Revised Estimates) and 2015-16 prioritising secondary education over elementary education.
(Budget Estimates).
Per child spending in most states is above Rs. 10,000
per annum. There is huge debate over learning outcomes
Findings and Policy Implications in private schools as compared to government schools,
How a state designs its resources for school education vis-à-vis lower per student spending in private schools
depends on several factors. Good policy measures draw as compared to government schools. However, Kendriya
upon an appropriate balance between different types of Vidyalayas and Navodaya Vidyalayas, which are considered as
input, output and outcome indicators so as to establish the ‘model’ government-run schools in terms of providing quality
link between means and ends. Hence, before analysing the education, spend Rs. 27,150 and Rs. 85,000, respectively, per
budgetary pattern of school education, the study mapped student per annum at the elementary level, which are much
the 10 states in the educational attainment ladder on five higher than per student spending by the states.
dimensions of education: management, infrastructure, access,
quality and learning enhancement. Financing of school education—total school-education

Executive Summary 11
budget and pattern of expenditure—provides a partial picture There is extensive literature that shows programmes
about a state’s education policy. However, educational like monetary and non-monetary incentives to children, and
performance of states has a direct relation to the design of MDM, have played a very important role in improving school
their school-education budgets. The study tries to capture how enrolment, attendance and retention of specific groups in
states are allocating and spending on different components schools. In the recent past, every state has taken several policy
of school education: mainly teacher salary, teacher training, initiatives to promote education, especially among socially-
inspection and monitoring, incentives to children, school and economically-weaker sections of children.
infrastructure and Mid-Day Meal (MDM).
In this respect, Bihar’s case is significant: the state is
Teachers are the core of any school and thus their spending around 22 percent of its school-education budget
role in quality improvement is paramount. Teaching is a on incentives. Some other educationally-backward states like
demanding and constantly evolving profession. Hence, regular Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand are
training of teachers is an imperative for quality education. For also spending around 10 percent or more of their total school-
all 10 states, teacher salary constitutes the largest share of education budget to incentivise children. However, in all states
school education budget. But, economically-weaker states other than Karnataka, the share of MDM in the school-
like Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh spend education budget has fallen between 2012-13 and 2015-16
less than 60 percent of their school education budget on (BE).
teacher salary. This figure is above 70 percent for Uttar
Pradesh and Karnataka, and around 80 percent for Rajasthan. Better designing of school-education budget does
Incidentally, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and not necessarily translate into universal quality education. It
Madhya Pradesh are the five states with a huge number of depends on how inclusive is the education system. India’s
teacher vacancies. population consists of 16 percent SCs, 9 percent STs and 13
percent Muslims. Around 28 percent of the population is below
According to an MHRD report, about 20 percent of the poverty line. The Indian Constitution acknowledged the
government-school teachers are untrained and the proportion centuries of social, economic and educational deprivation
of trained qualified teachers has been almost stagnant for the suffered by the marginalised sections. In order to protect these
last five years. Despite the lack of trained teachers, spending communities, specific provisions were incorporated in the
on teacher’s training is being neglected by most State Constitution, and states were directed to promote educational
Governments. In fact, Bihar is the only state to allocate 1.6 and economic interest of the people belonging to these
percent of its school-education budget to teacher’s training; communities.
in other states, it varies from 0.2 percent to 0.6 percent.
The study analyses how the school-education budget is
Along with teachers, infrastructure in a school plays a designed to promote education for children from SC, ST, Other
key role in quality education. It includes not only the availability Backward Class (OBC) and minority community, students
of facilities but also the extent to which they are utilised. from economically-weaker sections and students with special
The study shows that most government schools in these 10 needs. The study also looked at two other most vulnerable
states have failed to meet all RTE-mandated infrastructure groups, girl children and out-of-school children (OOSC), and
requirements even after four years of implementation of the the budgetary interventions that states are making to promote
Act. Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, which are already their education.
doing relatively better in school education, are also the states
that have fulfilled or are nearing fulfillment of RTE norms for In the last few years, almost every state has introduced
different indicators in all their schools. Although the share of a number of schemes to promote education among girls and
expenditure on infrastructure varies from 2.5 percent to 13.5 marginalised children. With the introduction of SSA, provisions
percent across different states, a higher share of allocation have also been made to bring out-of-school children back into
for infrastructure is observed in most states in 2015-16 on mainstream education. However, findings from the study reveal
account of trying to meet the deadline of RTE compliance for that the higher number of policy interventions have not been
infrastructure. supported by higher budgetary allocations.

The last few years have seen debates on teacher Even for the state that spends the highest on this
accountability, student performance and poor implementation component of the budget, the intervention for girls
of schemes across states. Better inspection and monitoring comprises less than 6 percent of the school-education
is a crucial determinant to address this issue. However, state budget. Major shares of public expenditure on education
budget analysis shows inspection and monitoring is another of SCs and STs are carried out from the Scheduled Caste
component that is severely resource-starved. Sub-Plan (SCSP) and Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP), respectively.

12 Executive Summary
 How Have States Designed Their School Education Budgets?

Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh are four states Chhattisgarh to 49.7 percent in Uttar Pradesh.
where more than 20 percent of the school-education budget
is being spent on children from the marginalised sections. The study concludes the school education system is
Chhattisgarh, with a high share of SC and ST population, plagued by inadequate resources, shortage of trained teachers,
spends around 50 percent of its school-education budget on poor infrastructure and overall poor learning outcomes. The
SC and ST children. challenges are common to states, though the depth and scale
of these problems differ. Since states have been struggling with
Other than SSA, no other interventions for OOSC are limited fiscal space for long, and hence have a limited resource
found in the budgets of the 10 states. Bihar and Chhattisgarh, envelope for education, skewed allocation of resources within
where the proportion of OOSC is high, are spending about their school-education budgets poses a major concern.
5 percent of their SSA budget on OOSC. In other states, the
spending is less than 1 percent of the total SSA budget. The availability of financial resources is inadequate or
deficient for all components of school education, including
Better governance, both at the level of planning, and teacher salary. However, the shortage of resources seems
management and monitoring, is a pre-requisite for smooth even more acute for recruitment of additional teachers,
and efficient functioning of schools. Schools having greater teacher training, building adequate school infrastructure
local decision-making authority and accountability show better and regular monitoring, among other things. Saving funds by
educational outcomes. School Management Committees reducing teacher salaries and benefits, or cutting down the
(SMCs), set up under the RTE Act, have been assigned number of teachers and other staff, is counterproductive, as it
substantial powers to improve school functioning through discourages good teachers from wanting to enter or remain in
monitoring, community mobilisation, participation in school- the profession.
level planning and budgeting. However, no state has spent
even 1 percent of its SSA budget to empower SMCs and The immediate need of the hour is to enhance the fiscal
strengthen community participation. space available to the Union and State Governments for
public spending on school education. Since education is in
Private schools, too, are an important beneficiary of the Concurrent List, which implies a shared responsibility of
government financing for school education. The government the Union and State Governments, concerted efforts should
provides grants to privately-aided schools (both elementary be made by both levels to step up public investment in school
and secondary) in the form of teacher salaries, and other education. Thus, it is necessary to enhance the overall
overheads like expenditure on teacher training, incentives, quantum of budgets for school education in the country.
administration and management, curriculum development,
examination system, etc. In terms of designing their school-education budgets
better, states need to allocate more funds for teacher
Besides grants to privately-aided schools, government training, inspection and monitoring, infrastructure
resources also go to private-unaided schools. The RTE strengthening, and interventions aimed at marginalised
Act, 2009, mandates that non-minority, private-unaided children, especially those with disabilities. Better governance
schools should reserve at least 25 percent of their seats in and better implementation can be achieved through effective
entry-level grades for children from economically-weaker participation of the community in the education system.
and disadvantaged backgrounds. Such schools are to be Along with better and efficient management of material
reimbursed by State Governments at the rate of per child resources, it is essential to address the issue of shortage in
expenditure incurred in government schools or the school fees human resources to raise the quality of the education system.
(section 12(1) (c)). Hence, based on the seat filled rate, private- A substantially improved process of decentralised planning,
unaided schools receive funds from the State Government smoothening of fund flows, addressing the bottlenecks in the
as compensation for admitting children from economically- fund utilisation process and constant monitoring can help
weaker sections. The proportion of school-education bridge the gaps between resource needs, budget allocations
budget going to private schools varies from 2.1 percent in and actual spending.

Executive Summary 13
 CHAPTER I

Introduction

A
round 68 years ago, India began its journey towards and abolition of the Planning Commission, among others, have
the goal of universal and free basic education. The changed the overall fiscal architecture of India.
Union Government initiated a number of programmes
to achieve the goal of Universalisation of Elementary In a spirit of strengthening federal governance and
Education, the most significant of which is the SSA, launched cooperative federalism, the Union Government has accepted
in 2001. Legislative response finally came through the Right the recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission to
of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, increase devolution of the divisible pool of central taxes to
2009, which came into force on April 1, 2010, to provide free the states from 32 percent to 42 percent. At the same time,
and compulsory education to children in the age group of 6-14 the Union Government has slashed its grants to states for
years in a neighbourhood school. In spite of these Government plan expenditure. Due to this, the Union Government’s share
interventions, the story of India’s educational achievements is on education spending has reduced further. Since the Union
one of limited success. accounts for a smaller share than the states in the country’s
total budgetary spending on education, it is implicit the new
Although India has made some encouraging progress fiscal architecture will have a direct impact on the public
in increasing school participation, more than 10 million provisioning of education at the state level.
children in the 5-14 years age group are out of school (as per
Census 2011). The situation is dire in secondary education
as government spending at this level remains substantially Rationale
low. In 2009, MHRD launched a centrally sponsored scheme Budgets are important policy instruments in the hands of the
(CSS)1 called Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) government to fulfill promises and commitments towards
to increase access to, and improve quality of, secondary different sectors and sections of the population. Hence, the
education. Yet in 2012, the gross enrolment ratio (GER) in responsiveness of government’s policies and budgets to the
secondary education was 75 percent. rights, needs and priorities of children is a critical aspect of
governance.
Given the country’s potential ‘demographic dividend’,
it is critical India’s policy response in the domain of public Policy pronouncements, in any sector, might not
education be accorded higher priority. For a long time, system- translate into strong government interventions on the
level reforms implemented through pan-India projects have ground if:
been the chosen means of improving learning outcomes. i. there are major gaps in the budgeting stage for the policy
Even under SSA, it continues more or less the same way. This concerned and/or;
approach has to give way to a clear recognition of the individual ii. there are major gaps in the implementation of the
school as the primary unit for improvement action. Another programmes/schemes that are meant to translate the
shift in approach needed is to design more contextualised and policy into concrete interventions on the ground.
prioritised action strategies. Generic inputs to schools can help
only to a limited extent; merely adding more of such inputs Several policy reports and research studies cite limited
do not guarantee change and improvement (Govinda and resource absorption capacity of states, lack of transparency in
Bandyopadhyay, 2010). financial management, weak accountability mechanisms and
weak decentralised planning processes as some of the major
The year 2015-16 was crucial for the country in reasons for poor implementation of schemes (CBGA, 2011).
the domain of fiscal policy. Certain fundamental policy
measures like acceptance of the 14th Finance Commission’s At present, a reasonable amount of information
recommendations on increased devolution of central taxes to is available in the public domain on issues related to
states, reduction in Union Government's Plan grants for states implementation of schemes meant to improve educational

1.
CSS are funded by both Union and State governments: resources are shared in a specific ratio between Union and state, and are implemented by the state government.

14 Introduction
 How Have States Designed Their School Education Budgets?

attainments of children. These include Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is around 3.9 percent of GDP, which is much below what the
(SSA), Mid-Day Meal (MDM) and Rashtriya Madhyamik Kothari Commission recommended in 1966—it should increase
Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA). (SSA is also being viewed as the to 6 percent of GNP by 1986. We know the share of school
main vehicle to channelise public resources for implementation education in the total education budget has been around
of the RTE Act.) 68 percent. We know the Union-State resource sharing for
education is skewed, with states contributing two-thirds or
However, we have limited information on in-depth more of the total budget for education (Figure 1).
insights on the possible gaps/flaws in budgeting for this sector.
The information available is mostly at the aggregate level. However, we don’t know in detail some of the major
For example, we know the total public spending on education deficiencies/gaps in allocation of budgets for school education:
(a) across different states (i.e. which states have spent lesser
amounts on school education than others and why);
Figure 1: Composition of India's Budgetary
(b) across different components within public provisioning
Expenditure on Education
of school education (i.e. salaries of teachers and other
States as % of GDP Centre as % of GDP States and centre as % of GDP human resources, training of teachers, teaching learning
4.0 materials, scholarships, textbooks and uniforms,
3.5 infrastructure, etc.); and
(c) vis-à-vis the various norms and provisions of the RTE Act,
3.0
2009.
2.5

2.0
Objective
1.5
The study has been carried out for 10 select states: Bihar,
1.0 Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh,
0.5 Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Uttar
Pradesh. They represent a combination of better- and poor-
0.0
performing states in education, representing four main regions
2006-07

2007-08

2008-09

2009-10

2010-11

2011-12

2012-13 (RE)

2013-14 (BE)

of the country.

The study has addressed a set of simple questions to

unpack the structure and nature of school-education budgets
Elementary education Secondary education University & higher education
for each of the 10 study states over the last four years: 2012-
Adult education Technical education
13, 2013-14, 2014-15 (RE) and 2015-16 (BE). A comprehensive
12.0 7.7 8.8 14.4 12.0 13.3 14.6 15.0
analysis of these aspects would generate the insights needed
0.2 to suggest corrective policy measures at different levels in the
0.2
0.3 0.3 0.3 select states. The questions are:
0.3 0.3 0.3
1. What is the overall resource envelope of the state?
19.3 24.5 24.3 19.3 21.3 16.1 14.7 15.3
2. How much does the state government spend on school
education?
3. How much budgetary resources have been allocated/spent
23.3 23.0 24.2 25.0 24.3 25.6 25.2 24.9
for different components of school education in the state?
4. How inclusive is school education? Is there any
government intervention for marginalised sections, girls or
OOSC in the state budget?
5. How much does the state government spend on
45.2 44.6 42.5 41.0 42.1 44.7 45.2 44.6 ‘Enhancing the Community Engagement with Schools’?
6. How much does the government contribute towards non-
government schools?
2006-07

2007-08

2008-09

2009-10

2010-11

2011-12

2012-13 (RE)

2013-14 (BE)

Methodology
Note: Figures in percent Public expenditure on school education covers expenditure at
Source: Analysis of Budgeted Expenditure on Education, various years, Planning and
Monitoring Unit, Department of Higher Education, MHRD (2013); GDP figures are from
three levels: elementary, secondary and senior secondary. The
National Account Statistics, 2014, CSO sources include expenditure by the Union Government, state

Introduction 15
governments, local bodies and foreign aid (which is transferred Ministers in 2015), most states depended on supplementary
primarily through government budgets). budgets to adapt to the new fiscal arrangements that started
in 2015-16.
Initially, education was the responsibility of states.
But in 1976, it was placed in the Concurrent List, and Following the 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments,
became the joint responsibility of both the Union and State besides Union and State Governments, both rural and urban
Governments. Both at the Union and the state level, along local bodies are also responsible for providing elementary
with the Department of School Education, many other education. Expenditure on elementary education by local
departments incur a substantial amount of expenditure bodies can be financed by any of three possible sources:
on education. This analysis covers expenditure by all such (a) funds disbursed to them by the Union Government
departments that report spending on school education in or State Government departments (i.e. funds meant
their budgets. These include Department of Women and Child specifically for elementary education;
Development, Department of Social Security and Welfare, (b) expenditure financed from untied funds devolved to local
Department of Minority Welfare, Department of Tribal Welfare, bodies;
Department of Rural Development, Department of Urban (c) expenditure financed from revenue sources mobilised by
Development, Panchayati Raj Department, Department of local bodies.
Public Works, Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation,
and Department of Planning. The analysis presented here includes (a), but not (b)
and (c). Having said that, both the level of devolution of untied
The Ministry of Human Resource Development at the funds to local bodies and revenues mobilised by them from
Union level and the Department of Education at the state level their own sources differ widely across states; and, barring a
together finance more than 80 percent of the school-education few states, these are low in most cases. Hence, the analysis has
budget (elementary and secondary together). There is some not excluded any significant proportion of public spending on
expenditure by the Department of Education of states that education at the level of local bodies.
is not earmarked exclusively for elementary or secondary
education; it is spent on schools as a whole or for school Until 2013-14, state budgets did not include the Union
administration or the education secretariat. The analysis Government’s share of funds for the two major CSS for school
presented here includes these amounts in the figures for total education: SSA and RMSA. This is because the money was
expenditure on school education. flowing directly from the Union Government to SSA and RMSA
societies, bypassing the state treasuries, and hence the state
The expenditure incurred by other departments is also budgets. From 2014-15 onwards, the fund flow mechanism
designed mostly to cater to children studying in classes I to X, has changed, and the Union Government’s expenditure on
or post-matric students, or students of classes I-XII altogether. SSA and RMSA is reflected in the state budget. However, in
As a result, a sizable amount of government expenditure on some states, this reporting process was not observed in
schools and students is considered at an overall level, and the 2014-15 (BE).
figures (presented in this report) for budgetary expenditure
at the elementary and secondary levels are underestimations. In order to capture the total SSA and RMSA expenditure
Nonetheless, as explained earlier, the figures for total in a state (i.e. the Union and State Government shares
budgetary expenditure on school education are far more combined) for 2012-13 and 2013-14, data on funds released to
comprehensive. different states for SSA and RMSA by the Union Government
were collected from the SSA portal and the MHRD portal. The
In order to capture the total budgetary spending on states’ budgetary expenditure on SSA and RMSA (reflected in
school education, both the Union and state budgets have been State Budgets) were added to the Union Government releases
analysed at the most disaggregated level. Hence, DDGs of all to arrive at the total SSA and RMSA expenditure figures.
the departments mentioned above have been analysed for four Thus, for 2012-13 and 2013-14, there is some approximation
years: 2012-13 (Actuals), 2013-14 (Actuals), 2014-15 (Budget in arriving at the total ‘actual’ expenditure figures for SSA and
Estimates), 2014-15 (Revised Estimates) and 2015-16 (Budget RMSA, since the state’s share of expenditure is actual while
Estimates). the Union’s share of expenditure is funds ‘released’. However,
for 2014-15 and 2015-16, the figures are entirely from the
The 2015-16 figures include the supplementary budgets State Budget documents, and hence no such approximation is
that states presented that year. It was important to capture involved there.
this information as, following changes in the Union-state
sharing of resources (as per recommendations of the 14th In order to assess the relative resource availability for
Finance Commission and the NITI Aayog’s sub-group of Chief school education across states, this report has calculated the

16 Introduction
 How Have States Designed Their School Education Budgets?

‘per child spending’ on education. The analysis is done for the introduction. Section II presents a comparative picture
6-17 years age group (school going age), the thinking being that of educational performance of the 10 study states at the
governments design policy on the basis of a population, not a elementary and secondary levels. Section III examines the
sample. However, ‘per student expenditure’ figures have also size of the resource envelope of states before and after
been provided for comparison. A rider: since data for children the changed fiscal architecture. Section IV analyses each
of this age group was not available for the study period, the state’s spending on school education. Section V provides the
projected population data for this age group provided by composition of school-education budget across states and
MHRD has been used for calculation. within the state. Section VI raises the question of inclusivity of
the school-education system from the budgetary lens. Section
VII tracks the issue of governance and stakeholders from
Structure of the study budgetary perspectives. The study concludes with research
This report is presented in eight sections, including the findings and policy recommendations.

Introduction 17
 CHAPTER II

Comparative Analysis of Educational

Outcomes Across Select States
A
n education indicator shines light on one or more ratio, percentage of girls’ enrolment, distance of school
aspects of the education system. How a state designs from household) determines the use and accessibility of
and allocates its resources for school education school education. Quality is a combination of input and
depends on a number of indicators. Good policy measures output variables (drop-out rate, transition rate, pupil-teacher
strike a judicious balance between different types of input, ratio) that explain the factors that determine the quality of
output and outcome indicators to establish the link between education. Learning enhancement is an outcome indicator that
means and ends. represents educational achievement.

Map 1: Study States Management

Literature shows better management quality provides better
educational outcomes (Bloom [Link]. 2014). A number of
studies find that, even after eight years of schooling, children
in government schools in India don’t acquire basic literacy and
numeracy skills (PROBE 1999, Pandey et al, 2008; ASER 2014).

It is widely perceived that privately-managed schools

Rajasthan Uttar
Pradesh deliver better learning outcomes than government-run schools,
Bihar
and are hence preferred by parents. The PROBE Report (1999,
Madhya Jharkhand page 63) notes: “In a private school, teachers are accountable
Pradesh
h

to the manager (who can fire them), and, through him or her,
ar
sg
tti
ha

Odisha to parents (who can withdraw their children). In a government

Ch

Maharashtra
school, the chain of accountability is much weaker, as teachers
have a permanent job with salaries and promotions unrelated
to performance. This contrast is perceived with crystal clarity
by the vast majority of parents.” However, studies have also
Karnataka
shown that in both private and government schools, the overall
Tamil quality is low and learning gains from one grade to the next
Nadu
are small (Goyal and Pandey, 2010). Nonetheless, in the last
10 years, the numbers of privately-managed schools have
increased substantially and continue to be on the rise.
Before examining the budgetary pattern of school education,
this section maps the position of the 10 study states in the In India, about 75 percent of elementary schools are run
education ladder. A set of indicators representing different either by the state government or the Union Government or
dimensions of education such as management, infrastructure, local bodies. In Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand and
access, quality and learning enhancement have been used to Madhya Pradesh, more than 80 percent of elementary schools
gauge a state’s performance in school education (See Matrix 1 are managed by the government. By comparison, a relatively
for elementary level and Matrix 2 for secondary level). higher number of privately-managed schools are situated in
Rajasthan (35 percent), Uttar Pradesh (34 percent), Tamil
Management refers to the pattern of the existing Nadu (34 percent) and Maharashtra (30 percent). The share of
governing system. Infrastructure (percentage of schools privately-managed schools (includes both government-aided
having drinking water facility, percentage of schools and government-unaided) is quite high at the secondary level:
having girls hostel) is an input indicator, which determines above 90 percent in Uttar Pradesh and above 80 percent in
accessibility and quality of education. Access (net attendance Maharashtra.

18 Comparative Analysis of Educational Outcomes Across Select States

 How Have States Designed Their School Education Budgets?

Infrastructure school within 5 km.

Infrastructure is an input indicator that determines
accessibility and quality of education. Basic infrastructure is
the primary requisite for any school. It includes not only the Quality
availability of facilities, but also the extent to which they are RTE mandates a pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) of 30:1 in order to
utilised and hence become easier to monitor. ensure better learning outcomes in classrooms. The ratio is
The RTE Act has clearly specified norms for school 32: 1 for secondary education, as envisaged for RMSA. Bihar,
infrastructure. The Act states that each school should have: Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh have not yet achieved the PTR
1. At least one classroom for every teacher mandated under RTE, with Bihar having the highest PTR at the
2. Office-cum-store-cum-head teacher’s room elementary level, of 50. The same three states also show a high
3. Separate, usable toilets for girls and boys PTR at the secondary level (DISE 2014-15).
4. Safe and adequate drinking water facility
5. Kitchen where mid-day-meal is cooked in the school The average drop-out rate and transition across levels of
6. Playground education indicate the quality of education provided in schools.
7. Arrangements to secure the school building by boundary In spite of substantial improvement in retention after RTE, the
wall or fencing incidence of drop-out is still high in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan
and Uttar Pradesh. The incidence is higher at the secondary
The Supreme Court, too, has ruled that separate toilets level. While the average drop-out rate at the secondary level is
for boys and girls, as well as drinking water facilities, should 18 percent, it is as high as 50 percent in Odisha. In most states,
be in all schools, including those run by minority communities, the transition rate from primary to upper primary is much
to ensure RTE (ToI, 2014). Most states are able to provide for higher than from secondary to higher secondary. For example,
drinking water in schools. However, a separate toilet for girls in in Bihar, the transition rate from primary to upper primary
all schools is still a distant dream for many states. In Bihar, 30 is 82 percent, but only 44 percent from secondary to higher
percent schools at the elementary level don’t have girls’ toilets. secondary (DISE, 2014-15).
Moreover, the existence of a separate toilet does not ensure
functional toilets.
Learning enhancement
Learning outcomes are often used as a proxy for the quality of
Access education provided. The most cited source in this regard is the
India has achieved near-universal enrolment at the elementary ASER survey at the elementary level and National Achievement
level. But when examined against attendance of age-specific Survey (NAS) by NCERT at the secondary level1. The matrix for
population, the data shows sizable variation across states. elementary education shows that in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya
Although all 10 states shows a NAR at the elementary level of Pradesh, Jharkhand and Bihar, 50 percent children in standard
above 80, only Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra have IV cannot read a standard I text book. The best-performing
an NAR above the national average (87). The gaps become state is Maharashtra, but here too only 69 percent children
wider at the secondary level: Karnataka has the highest NAR have passed the test.
(74), but it’s below 50 for Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Rajasthan,
Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. In the absence of any regular achievement test at the
secondary level, the NAS conducted in a few states is the
Although female enrolment has shown a significant only source of information on how states are performing on
increase, especially at the elementary level, the disparity learning outcomes. Karnataka is the best-performing state,
in enrolment does not seem to have reduced much at the with 45 percent of items questioned in English being correctly
secondary level. In Rajasthan, 41 percent of girls are enrolled answered by students of class X.
at the secondary level, which would be lower if measured by
attendance. A mapping of all 10 states on 10 indicators, representing
five dimensions of the education system, portrays a mixed
To improve access, it was mandated under RTE that picture of performance (Matrix 1 and Matrix 2). There are two
every household should have a primary school within consistent features. One, in most cases, all BIMARU states,
1 km of habitation, and under RMSA, a secondary school which are also economically poor/backward, perform below
within 5-7 km of habitation. In all 10 states, more than 90 the national average at all levels of education. Two, states
percent of households have an elementary school within 1 km like Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu show better
and more than 75 percent households have a secondary performance on input, output and indicators.

1.
ASER: Annual Status of Education Report (Rural), a survey by an NGO called PRATHAM; NCERT: National Council of Educational Research and Training

Comparative Analysis of Educational Outcomes Across Select States 19

Matrix 1: Performance of Select States at Elementary Level of Education
Management Infrastructure Access

Elementary schools Schools Elementary Net Attendance Ratio of girls to

managed by with drinking water schools with girls Ratio at boys in elementary
government (%) facility (%) toilet facility (%) elementary level education

Bihar 89.8 92.5 71.2 83.0 0.99

Chhattisgarh 88.7 97.1 74.4 85.0 0.96

Jharkhand 86.8 91.8 84.2 86.0 0.97

Karnataka 74.1 99.8 99.9 90.0 0.94

Madhya Pradesh 80.3 96.2 83.9 87.0 0.92

Maharashtra 69.4 99.6 99.0 90.0 0.88

Odisha 85.7 98.0 76.8 87.0 0.94

Rajasthan 65.8 97.1 83.4 85.0 0.85

Tamil Nadu 66.3 99.8 99.1 89.0 0.95

Uttar Pradesh 66.2 98.5 98.0 81.0 0.97

India 75.7 96.1 87.1 87.0 0.93

Note: States arranged in alphabetical order

Source: DISE 2014-15 (management, infrastructure and quality), NSS 71st Round, 2014 (access), ASER (learning outcomes)

Matrix 2: Performance of Select States at Secondary Level of Education

Management Infrastructure Access

Secondary schools Schools with Secondary Net Attendance Girls enrolled

managed by drinking water schools with girls Ratio at in secondary
government (%) facility (%) toilet facility (%) secondary level education (%)

Bihar 76.9 98.4 86.1 44.0 47.9

Chhattisgarh 68.8 97.1 91.0 55.0 49.8

Jharkhand 88.5 96.7 91.9 43.0 48.4

Karnataka 71.2 99.6 98.6 74.0 48.8

Madhya Pradesh 52.4 97.9 90.6 47.0 45.8

Maharashtra 17.5 100.0 99.6 62.0 45.7

Odisha 54.6 99.2 90.2 67.0 49.4

Rajasthan 49.8 98.8 99.5 43.0 41.1

Tamil Nadu 51.9 99.5 99.9 69.0 50.6

Uttar Pradesh 8.7 99.4 99.5 36.0 47.2

India 43.3 98.5 96.3 52.0 47.3

Note: States arranged in alphabetical order ; Source: DISE 2014-15 (management, infrastructure, quality and girls enrolment), NSS 71st Round, 2014 (access, except girls enrolment),
National Achievement Survey, NCERT (learning outcomes)

20 Comparative Analysis of Educational Outcomes Across Select States

 How Have States Designed Their School Education Budgets?

Matrix 1: Performance of Select States at Elementary Level of Education

Quality Learning outcomes

Households living Average drop-out Transition Rate: Pupil- Children in Standard IV

within 1 km of rate at primary primary to upper teacher who can read at least
primary school (%) level (%) primary (%) ratio Standard I level text-rural (%)

Bihar 95.5 2.09 82.6 49 48.9

Chhattisgarh 97.2 1.42 95.6 21 56.2

Jharkhand 95.9 6.41 82.8 38 45.6

Karnataka 96.0 2.32 96.2 26 57.2

Madhya Pradesh 98.9 10.14 85.8 26 40.8

Maharashtra 96.2 0.55 99.6 25 68.8

Odisha 94.1 2.94 91.1 21 61.3

Rajasthan 93.4 8.39 88.2 19 61.5

Tamil Nadu 94.4 0.46 97.8 17 58.0

Uttar Pradesh 95.2 7.08 78.5 36 35.9

India 94.1 4.34 89.7 25 56.3

Note: States arranged in alphabetical order

Source: DISE 2014-15 (management, infrastructure and quality), NSS 71st Round, 2014 (access), ASER (learning outcomes)

Matrix 2: Performance of Select States at Secondary Level of Education

Quality Learning outcomes

Households living Average Transition Rate: Pupil- Items correctly

within 5 km of drop-out rate at secondary to higher teacher answered in English in
secondary school (%) secondary level (%) secondary (%) ratio Class X (%)

Bihar 86.1 25.3 44.4 48 NA

Chhattisgarh 91.0 23.4 58.5 33 NA

Jharkhand 81.2 23.2 59.3 66 NA

Karnataka 76.6 27.6 45.7 19 45.0

Madhya Pradesh 77.3 26.5 56.8 40 30.0

Maharashtra 85.0 14.5 82.8 28 41.0

Odisha 87.6 49.5 2.3 20 38.0

Rajasthan 92.0 18.8 64.4 28 33.0

Tamil Nadu 85.5 12.2 79.8 23 30.0

Uttar Pradesh 89.0 7.3 80.5 72 NA

India 87.8 17.9 68.3 31 41.0

Note: States arranged in alphabetical order ; Source: DISE 2014-15 (management, infrastructure, quality and girls enrolment), NSS 71st Round, 2014 (access, except girls enrolment),
National Achievement Survey, NCERT (learning outcomes)

Comparative Analysis of Educational Outcomes Across Select States 21

 CHAPTER III

Overall Fiscal Space

with the States

T
he International Monetary Fund (IMF) defines ‘fiscal affecting expenditure in other sectors needed to achieve
space’ as “room in a government's budget that allows other development objectives.
it to provide resources for a desired purpose without
jeopardising the sustainability of its financial position or the In India, historically and constitutionally, the fiscal
stability of the economy.” (Marcel, 2012.) The United Nations space for states has been limited by their modest resource-
(UN) defines it as “the financing available to a government generating capacity. The ‘committed expenditure’ on interest
as a result of concrete policy actions for enhancing resource payment, pensions and other liabilities consumes a sizeable
mobilisation, and the reforms necessary to secure the chunk of resources available with states. After this, there are
enabling governance, institutional and economic environment limited resources left to meet other expenditure priorities.
for these policy actions to be effective, for a specified set of
development objectives.” (Roy, Heuty and Letouze, 2007). It In the context of fiscal resources, 2015-16 marked
is implicit from these definitions that enhanced fiscal space a number of significant changes. Fundamental policy
can create additional resource flow for education, without measures like acceptance of the 14th Finance Commission’s

Figure 2: Share of State Revenue Receipts in GSDP

2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 (BE) 2014-15 (RE) 2015-16 (BE)

30

25 23.7
22.7 22.6
21.2 20.4 20.4
20

15.8 16.6
15
12.7
10.5
10

0
Bihar Chhattisgarh Jharkhand Karnataka Madhya Maharashtra Odisha Rajasthan Tamil Nadu Uttar
Pradesh Pradesh
Note:
1. Figures in percent
2. GSDP: Gross State Domestic Product
3. States arranged in alphabetical order
4. To enable easy reading of the graph, values have been given for each state for the latest year only
Source: Budget at a Glance, State Budget Document, 2014-15 and 2015-16

22 Overall Fiscal Space with the States

 How Have States Designed Their School Education Budgets?

recommendations on increased devolution of central taxes show an increase in the magnitude of total revenue receipts
to states from 32 percent to 42 percent, reduction in Union as a proportion of GSDP. One of the reasons underlying this
Government’s Plan grants for states, and abolition of the visible jump in the quantum of revenue receipts available to
Planning Commission have changed the fiscal architecture in states in 2014-15, as compared to the previous years, was
India. the change in the route through which Union Ministries have
been sending funds to states for a host of central schemes. In
In the spirit of strengthening cooperative federalism case of most central schemes, the Union Government’s share
in the country, the Union Government accepted the of funds used to bypass the State Budgets, and transferred
recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission. The directly to autonomous bank accounts of the societies set up
increase in devolution of untied resources to states is a for implementing those schemes, until 2013-14. This practice
noteworthy policy measure as it will help them design and has been discontinued and all kinds of funds provided by the
implement schemes as per their priorities and needs. At Union Government are being sent to states through the State
the same time, to tackle its own fiscal deficit, the Union Budgets since 2014-15.
Government secured its fiscal consolidation path through
expenditure compression: there was a drastic cut in Central Between 2014-15 (RE) and 2015-16 (BE), in absolute
assistance to State Plans in 2015-16. terms, there is an increase in revenue receipts in all 10
states, but the situation varies in case of relative comparison
The largest share of social sector expenditure from with GSDP. Nine out of the 10 states show a decline in the
budgets goes to education. Since social sector expenditure magnitude of revenue receipts as percent of GSDP in 2015-
is more in the nature of revenue expenditure, and the existing 16 (BE) as compared to 2014-15 (RE). In Bihar and Madhya
Fiscal Responsibility & Budget Management (FRBM) Act Pradesh, the decline is more than 2 percentage points of
framework needs states to eliminate revenue deficit, there is GSDP; Chhattisgarh is the only state where the revenue
a high probability that many states, particularly the poorer receipt to GSDP ratio has improved by 0.4 percentage point.
ones, will fail to prioritise adequate budgetary resources for
programmes targeted towards social sectors, including the Another important observation is that while more
education sector. economically-advanced states like Maharashtra and Tamil
Nadu projected a Revenue Deficit in 2015-16 (BE), other
In this backdrop, it is important to examine whether states that are economically weaker, projected a Surplus in
the changed fiscal architecture has helped states expand their Revenue Account for 2015-16 (See Annexure, Table 2).
their resource envelop. Overall revenue receipts of a state It implies the poorer states tried to finance a part of their
(including its own generated revenue and revenue receipt Capital Expenditure from their Revenue Account Surplus
from the Union) as a proportion of GSDP has been calculated instead of increasing their quantum of borrowing for financing
for the 10 study states to understand the fiscal space of a the whole of their Capital Expenditure. However, these states
state in comparison to the size of its economy. Here, we have also need to step up their public spending on education and
taken only the revenue receipts and not the capital receipts other social sectors, very large proportions of which are
too, since the states’ spending on education sector is largely reported in the Revenue Account of the budget. Hence, the
in the revenue expenditure category, and, with the tendency ‘fiscal consolidation’ being pursued by some of the poorer
witnessed across most of the poorer states to not only states might be taking place at the cost of checking the
eliminate their Revenue Deficit but rather maintain a Surplus growth of expenditure on social sectors.
in the revenue account of their budgets, the fiscal space
available for spending on education depends almost entirely In such a scenario, there is a need for both the Union
on the quantum of revenue receipts available with the states. and State Governments to adopt policy measures to expand
the public resource envelop in the country. Along with
Figure 2 shows that, between 2012-13 and 2014-15 measures in a host of areas, it would require a significant
(RE), barring Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, all other states stepping up of the country’s tax-GDP ratio.

Overall Fiscal Space with the States 23

 CHAPTER IV

How Much are States Spending

on School Education?

T
he pattern of financing of school education and the Development at the Union level and Department of Education
question of its position in the overall development at the state level together financed more than 80 percent
framework has been answered by analysing the school- of the school-education budget (elementary and secondary
education budget for the 10 states on these four aspects: together) (See Annexure). There is some expenditure incurred
a. School-education budget as a percentage of GSDP, by the state Education Department that is not exclusively
which will show whether states are spending on school targeted for elementary or secondary education, but is spent
education as per the size of their economy. on schools as a whole or for school administration or for the
b. School-education budget as a percentage of state budget, education secretariat.
which will reveal a state’s priority for the education sector
in general and school education in particular. Expenditure financed by other departments is also
c. Per child spending, which will capture relative resource mostly designed to cater to either children studying in class
availability across states, given the variation in student I-X or post-matric or students of class I-XII altogether. Due
population across states. to this sizeable amount of common expenditure incurred
d. Per student spending, which will capture resource on school and children, an analysis of education budget
availability for each enrolled child in school. specifically at the elementary or secondary level will always
be an underestimation. Therefore, the study analyses the
In all 10 states, the Ministry of Human Resource entire budget for school education of the 10 states, instead of

Figure 3a: Patterns of School-Education Budget Figure 3b: Patterns of School-Education Budget
School-education School-education budget Per child spending at Per student spending
budget as % of GSDP as % of state budget school level in 2015-16 (Rs.) in 2014-15 (Rs.)

Bihar 28,630
5.6 17.7 Maharashtra 18,035

Uttar Pradesh Chhattisgarh 17,223 19,190

5.0 17.2
Chhattisgarh Tamil Nadu 16,939 23,617
4.6 17.0

Odisha 3.9 14.0 Odisha 14,277 15,335

Madhya Pradesh 3.7 15.9 Rajasthan 12,606 13,512

Jharkhand 3.6 13.2 Karnataka 12,503 22,856

Rajasthan 3.5 16.7 Madhya Pradesh 11,330 11,771

Maharashtra 2.3 18.1 Uttar Pradesh 9,167 7,613

Karnataka 2.2 10.8 Jharkhand 9,159 9,451

Tamil Nadu 2.1 13.4 Bihar 8,526 9,583

Note:
Note 1. States arranged in decreasing order of per child spending at school level in 2015-16
1. Figures for 2015-16 (BE+SB) 2. Figures include supplementary budgets
2. States arranged in decreasing order of school-education budget as % of GSDP Source: State Budgets for 2015-16, Supplementary Budget Documents; DISE (2015),
Source: State Budgets for 2015-16, Supplementary Budget Documents MHRD (2015)

24 How Much are States Spending on School Education?

 How Have States Designed Their School Education Budgets?

Figure 4: Trends of Financing School Education in Select States

School-education budget as % of state budget
2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2014-15 2015-16 2015-16 Trend in study period
(BE) (RE) (BE) (BE+SB)
Bihar 19.3 16.9 20.2 18.1 18.0 17.7
Chhattisgarh 18.3 18.0 14.8 18.9 17.2 17.0
Jharkhand 13.7 12.5 15.9 13.4 13.9 13.2
Karnataka 13.4 13.8 13.1 14.2 12.6 10.8
Madhya Pradesh 20.7 22.8 17.7 14.6 14.8 15.9
Maharashtra 19.2 20.3 17.5 17.9 19.0 18.0
Odisha 15.0 14.1 13.7 13.2 14.2 14.0
Rajasthan 16.8 16.1 17.8 16.1 17.1 16.7
Tamil Nadu 13.9 14.4 13.0 13.8 13.3 13.4
Uttar Pradesh 19.8 17.2 15.3 15.3 16.8 17.2

School-education budget as % of GSDP

2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2014-15 2015-16 2015-16
(BE) (RE) (BE) (BE+SB) Trend in study period

Bihar 4.5 4.0 6.2 6.2 4.8 5.6

Chhattisgarh 3.7 3.3 3.8 4.9 4.6 4.6
Jharkhand 2.8 2.2 4.1 3.5 3.4 3.6
Karnataka 2.4 2.4 2.5 2.7 2.3 2.2
Madhya Pradesh 4.6 4.3 4.1 3.4 3.3 3.7
Maharashtra 2.3 2.4 2.2 2.3 2.3 2.3
Odisha 2.8 2.9 3.5 3.3 3.5 3.9
Rajasthan 2.9 2.9 4.1 3.5 3.5 3.5
Tamil Nadu 2.1 2.2 2.0 2.3 2.1 2.1
Uttar Pradesh 4.4 4.0 4.3 4.1 4.6 5.0

Note: 1. SB: Supplementary Budget; BE: Budget Estimates; RE: Revised Estimates 2. States arranged in alphabetical order
Source: State Budget Documents for 2014-15 and 2015-16, Supplementary Budget Documents for 2015-16

segregating it into elementary and secondary levels. Higher per child spending in Tamil Nadu and
Maharashtra can explain this incidence to some extent,
As per the latest state budget (2015-16), Bihar and Uttar though per child spending also depends on the number of
Pradesh, two economically-poor states, are spending 5.6 children in the 6-17 years age group in the respective states.
percent and 5 percent of GSDP on education, respectively. By Figure 3b shows that states other than Bihar, Jharkhand and
comparison, economically-advanced states like Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh spend above Rs. 10,000 per child per annum
Karnataka and Maharashtra are spending less on school on education at the school level.
education (2.09 percent to 2.28 percent). This implies the
level of economic development does not necessarily translate The same is the case with per student spending. Bihar,
into higher public spending on education. Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh spend below Rs. 10,000 per
child per annum. Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu are the two
A similar picture is observed from the share of school highest- spending states: they spent Rs. 28,630 and Rs.
education in the total state budget. For some educationally- 23,617, respectively, on each enrolled student in 2014-15. In
backward states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, this context, it is also important to highlight the Kendriya
Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, this figure is higher than Vidyalayas and Navodaya Vidyalayas, which are considered
economically-advanced states like Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. ‘model’ government-run schools in terms of providing quality
However, it cannot be concluded from this indicator alone education: they spent Rs. 27,150 and Rs. 85,000 per student,
that such educationally-backward states are spending higher respectively, at the elementary level in 2015-16 (ToI, 2015).
amounts on school education. That’s because if the overall
resource envelop of a state is small, even a marginal increase For a holistic picture of school-education financing,
in expenditure on school education will translate into a higher it is important to look at the trend along with the level of
share in the total state budget. education. Figure 4 traces school-education financing in the

How Much are States Spending on School Education? 25

Figure 5: Change in Expenditure on Elementary, Secondary and School Education Between
2012-13 and 2015-16 (BE)
Elementary education (Percent) Secondary education (Percent) School education (Percent)

Bihar 25.9 147.9 57.4

Chhattisgarh 47.8 149.8 50.9

Jharkhand 55.0 150.0 69.7

Karnataka 21.6 18.4 21.9

Madhya Pradesh 66.8 88.4 33.9

Maharashtra 31.5 42.5 41.2

Odisha 44.0 78.0 60.6

Rajasthan 49.9 98.6 54.0

Tamil Nadu 40.0 45.2 43.3

Uttar Pradesh 79.7 13.8 44.4

Note: 1. Figures in percent 2. 2015-16 (BE) includes Supplementary Budget, BE: Budget Estimate 3. States arranged in alphabetical order
Source: State Budget Documents for 2014-15 and 2015-16, Supplementary Budget Documents for 2015-16

10 states for the last four years: 2012-13, 2013-14, 2014-15 states in the last four years (between 2012-13 and 2015-
(BE), 2014-15 (RE) and 2015-16 (BE). The numbers include 16), the expenditure on elementary, secondary and overall
supplementary grants proposed after the presentation of school education has increased in absolute terms. However,
budget estimates. The trends have been analysed for two it is important to examine which states are showing higher
indicators: school-education budget as a percentage of GSDP growth, and whether the increase in total school-education
and school-education budget as a percentage of state budget. budget is due to an increase in the elementary-education
budget (brought on the implementation of the RTE Act) or an
The trend analysis highlights three key findings: increase in the secondary-education budget.
1. In Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka, the share of school-
education budget in GSDP has declined between 2012- Figure 5 traces the change in expenditure on
13 and 2015-16 (BE+SB). In other states, the share has elementary, secondary and school education between 2012-
increased in varying magnitudes. The share of increase is 13 and 2015-16 (BE). The change in spending on elementary
above 1 percentage point in Bihar and Odisha. education varies from 26 percent (Bihar) to 80 percent (Uttar
2. Between 2012-13 and 2015-16 (BE+SB), in all 10 states, Pradesh). For secondary education, the range is 13.8 percent
the share of school-education budget in the total state (Uttar Pradesh) to 150 percent (Jharkhand).
budget has declined.
3. In the study period, post the acceptance of the 14th Between 2012-13 and 2015-16 (BE), growth in
Finance Commission recommendations, states have had expenditure for elementary education has exceeded that for
to reprioritise their allocation pattern. Governments of secondary education in only Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh.
all study states have addressed this issue by injecting For Bihar, the growth in expenditure for secondary education
supplementary grants to the allocated resources. is about six times higher than elementary education; for
However, the increased resource envelop has reduced Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, it’s about three times.
the initial share of school-education budget in the total
state budget in 2015-16 (BE). The share has increased Thus, it is clear that higher growth in school-education
marginally in Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya expenditure is mostly because of secondary-education
Pradesh. expenditure. However, since the study does not capture the
expenditure pattern in elementary education before 2010
The change in the share of school-education budget (prior to the RTE period), it is difficult to conclude whether
in the total state budget and the state’s GSDP also depends this is regular incremental growth or a direct impact of RTE
on the growth rate of GSDP and the state budget. In all 10 implementation.

26 How Much are States Spending on School Education?

 How Have States Designed Their School Education Budgets?

CHAPTER V

Priorities Within School-Education

Budgets Across States

T
his section looks at how states are designing their Figure 6: States with High Number of Teacher
school-education budgets. The analysis has been done Vacancies
for two parameters, namely: Teacher vacancies under SSA Teacher vacancies under state programme
a. Distribution of school-education budget across states
b. Distribution of school-education budget within states Uttar
124,196 145,334
Pradesh

To make the analysis easier to comprehend, the

Bihar 166,877 52,189
expenditure on school education reported by various
departments/ministries under DDGs for every state has been
Jharkhand 39,539 29,624
broadly classified into seven categories: teacher salary, teacher
training, inspection and monitoring, incentives, infrastructure,
Odisha 1,917 54,186
mid-day meal and others. Matrix 3 (on the next page) gives the
list of components covered under these seven categories.
Chhattisgarh 10,314 44,378

Note: 1. Vacancies: shortfall in teachers over total posts sanctioned

V.a.: Component-Wise Distribution of 2. SSA: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan
3. States arranged in decreasing order of total vacancies
School-Education Budget Across States Source: Education for All towards Quality with Equity, MHRD, 2104
Teacher salary
Teachers are facilitators of learning and are central to the Madhya Pradesh had the worst record on this count, with
effective functioning of any school. Thus, their role in quality 17,874 institutions in the state having just one teacher each
improvement is paramount. However, a common feature of the (ToI, 2016). Limited fiscal space available to states could be a
Indian education system is a shortage of qualified teachers. factor in this low/no recruitment situation.
There is a shortage of more than 5 lakh teachers in elementary
schools. About 14 percent of government secondary schools do Teacher salaries account for the largest share of the
not have the prescribed minimum six teachers (Committee for school-education budget in India. Recent times have seen
Evolution of the New Education Policy Report, 2016). pitched debates over current salary levels of teachers. It is
argued that private schools, despite lower per student spending
Recruitment of additional teachers has not kept pace than government schools, deliver better learning outcomes.
with rapidly-growing enrolments. In Bihar and Odisha, no
regular teacher recruitments have happened in a long time. Higher salaries of government teachers is one of the
According to the District Information System for Education major reasons for higher per capita spending in government
(DISE) of the Ministry of Human Resource Development, India schools (Dongre, Kapur & Tewary, 2014). It is also argued
had 7.6 lakh primary-only schools in academic year 2014-15. that high costs and ineffectiveness makes government
Of these, 41.5 percent had only two teachers, 11.6 percent only school teachers a wasteful expenditure. The total fiscal cost
one teacher and 0.84 percent (6,404 schools) did not have any from excess payments to government teachers is roughly
teacher at all. Rs 90,000 crore. Lower salaries to government teachers has
been recommended to save resources and ensure teacher
According to MHRD data, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar accountability in the government school system (Pritchett
have the highest backlog of teacher recruitment, followed & Aiyar, 2015). However, the generalisation that regular
by Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh (See Figure 6). A teachers in government schools draw higher salaries
recent MHRD report shows that about 1.05 lakh government than private schoolteachers is misleading (Bhatty, Dey
elementary and secondary schools are single-teacher schools. and Roy, 2015).

Priorities Within School-Education Budgets Across States 27

Matrix 3: Categorisation of Components of School-Education Budget

BROAD CATEGORY COMPONENTS

Grant-in-aid (salary), salaries, travel and medical allowances,

Teachers salary
professional and special services

All expenses related to training like administrative expenses to run

Teacher training teacher-training institutions, salary and allowances for trainers,
materials and supplies, printing and publications for training, etc.

Establishment costs related to inspection, salary and

Inspection and monitoring
allowances of inspectors, maintenance of MIS, etc.

Incentives for students: non-monetary Uniforms, textbooks, food materials in hostels, laptops, bicycles, etc.

Scholarships and stipends, education vouchers, assistance to SCs

Incentives for students: monetary for subsidised hostels, compensation to private-unaided schools
for admission of economically-weaker students under RTE.

All costs (administrative, infrastructure, food, salary and

honorarium of cooking staff, etc.) related to providing meal in
Mid-Day Meal
school under MDM scheme; any intervention by states under
state plan to provide meal to children at school.

Infrastructure (construction, All expenses related to construction, maintenance and repair

maintenance & repairs) of schools, hostels, library, laboratory, etc.

Expenses on direction and administration (rent rate and taxes, water

charge, electricity bills, miscellaneous charges, print and stationery,
Others salaries on operation of ashram/hostels, grants-in-aid (non-salary),
grants to local bodies (unspecified) and other expenditure

Source: Authors

A teacher’s salary is directly linked to the number of study states with similar characteristics. This may be due to
recruited teachers in a state. A mapping of the share of regular inconsistency in teacher salaries across states. In Jharkhand,
teachers (Figure 7) and the share of teacher salary in the Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Odisha, the share of teacher salary in
school-education budget (Figure 8) shows that, by and large, the school-education budget is around 60 percent or less. By
states with a relatively smaller proportion of regular teachers comparison, in Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Rajasthan, it is
have a lower share of teacher salary in the budget pie. above 70 percent (Figure 8).

However, this is not the case in Madhya Pradesh and International experience shows wage premium paid to
Chhattisgarh: in spite of having a larger proportion of regular teachers in public schools contributes more significantly to
teachers, the share of teacher salary in their total school- the growth in per student expenditure. The effect is stronger
education budget is much lower compared to some other in middle-income countries and in countries with larger

28 Priorities Within School-Education Budgets Across States

 How Have States Designed Their School Education Budgets?

Figure 7: Share of Regular Teachers in Total training of teachers is an imperative for quality education.
Teachers Among existing teachers in government schools, about 20
Share of regular teachers in total teachers (Percent) percent are untrained and the proportion of trained, qualified
teachers has been almost stagnant in the last five years
Jharkhand 55.1 (MHRD, 2014). The share of professionally-trained teachers
Odisha 66.7 varies from 52.2 percent in Bihar to 99 percent in Maharashtra
(DISE, 2015-16).
Tamil Nadu 78.8
Bihar 84.5
In recent years, to reduce fiscal deficit, most states have
Uttar Pradesh 89.9 adopted the policy of appointing contractual teachers instead
Maharashtra 93.5 of recruiting them in the regular cadre. The last 15 years have
Rajasthan 97.2 seen an enormous expansion of contractual teachers in several
states. In 2013-14, there were 5.08 lakh contractual teachers
Madhya Pradesh 97.8
at the elementary level, accounting for 6.5 percent of the
Karnataka 98.1
total teacher strength (DISE, 2014-15). Among them, only 60
Chhattisgarh 99.8 percent had professional teacher training (DISE, 2014-15). The
CABE sub-committee of teachers and teaching had pointed
Note: 1. Figures for 2015-16 2. States arranged in increasing order of metric shown
Source: DISE, 2014-15; State Budget, 2015-16 (BE), including supplementary grants out that even in 2012, Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh,
Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and West Bengal
Figure 8: Share of Teacher Salary in School- together accounted for 6.06 lakh untrained teachers.

Education Budget
The District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs),
Share of teacher salary in school-education budget (Percent)
conceived as teacher training and curriculum development
Bihar 51.6 institutions, have failed to live up to their roles. Studies have
shown that 17 percent of the DIETs don’t have their own
Jharkhand 54.0
building, 40 percent don’t have their own hostel facility and
Odisha 54.4 70 percent have no librarian. There is also about 80 percent
Chhattisgarh 60.8 vacancy in faculty positions in some states. Most DIETs are
located in remote places. Staff and faculty members are not
Madhya Pradesh 63.7
adequately trained. Training programmes lack innovation and
Tamil Nadu 67.0 faculty members have not undergone any capacity building in
Maharashtra 68.8 the last five years (Azim Premji Foundation, 2010). This reflects
Karnataka 71.6 in the results of the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET), an essential
criterion for teacher recruitment started in 2011 under the RTE
Uttar Pradesh 74.5
Act: only 15 per cent of candidates managed to clear this test
Rajasthan 80.4 (Hindustan Times, 2015).
Note: 1. Figures for 2015-16
2. States arranged in increasing order of metric shown
Source: DISE, 2014-15; State Budget, 2015-16 (BE), including supplementary grants Figure 9a: Share of Professionally-Trained Teachers
Share of professionally-trained teachers in total teachers (Percent)
classroom sizes (Nose, Manabu, 2015). A similar picture is Bihar 52.2
observed in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Chhattisgarh 71.6
Development (OECD) countries. At the primary, secondary
and post-secondary, non-tertiary levels of education, Uttar Pradesh 75.8
OECD countries spend an average of 79 percent of current
Jharkhand 76.2
expenditure to compensate education personnel (OECD, 2014).
Madhya Pradesh 76.9

Odisha 79.8
Teacher Training
Rajasthan 93.6
Teaching is a demanding and constantly evolving profession.
Developing capacities of primary-school teachers, with a deep Karnataka 95.9
understanding of the content they teach and how students Tamil Nadu 97.3
absorb that content, underpins the success of primary schools
Maharashtra 99.1
in the best education systems (NCEE, 2016). Hence, regular

Priorities Within School-Education Budgets Across States 29

Figure 9b: Share of Teacher's Training in The last few years have seen several debates on teacher
School-Education Budget accountability, student performance and poor implementation
Share of teacher's training in school-education budget (Percent) of schemes across states. In terms of resource allocation,
inspection and monitoring remains another neglected area
Madhya Pradesh 0.20 by policymakers. In 2015-16 (BE), Tamil Nadu and Odisha
made the highest share of allocations from their school-
Odisha 0.30
education budget, while Chhattisgarh did not allocate anything
Tamil Nadu 0.30
(Figure 10).
Uttar Pradesh 0.28
Rajasthan 0.31
Jharkhand 0.40 Infrastructure
Schools with better infrastructural attributes signal an
Maharashtra 0.40
overall interest in, and commitment to, providing quality
Chhattisgarh 0.56 education, thereby demonstrating improved learning
Karnataka 0.60 outcomes (Glewwe, et al. 2011). However, there are wide
Bihar 1.60 variations across states in the availability of basic facilities
such as school buildings, classrooms, drinking water,
Note: 1. Figures for 2015-16
2. States arranged in increasing order of metric shown
Source: U-DISE, School Education in India, 2015-16; State Budget, 2015-16 (BE), Figure 11: Share of Infrastructure in School-
including supplementary grants
Education Budget
Share of infrastructure in school-education budget (Percent)
Despite the lack of trained teachers, spending on teacher
training is constantly neglected by most governments. Bihar
Tamil Nadu 2.6
leads the 10 study states in allocations, directing 1.6 percent
of its school-education budget to teacher training. In the other Uttar Pradesh 3.2

nine states, it varies from 0.2 percent to 0.6 percent. Maharashtra 3.8
Rajasthan 5.4
Chhattisgarh 6.1
Inspection and Monitoring
Madhya Pradesh 6.3
In calculating the fiscal cost of teachers’ absence, a
study shows that investing in better governance by Bihar 7.2

hiring more school inspectors is over 10 times more cost- Karnataka 10.2
effective in increasing teacher-student contact time (net of Jharkhand 12.5
teacher absence) than hiring more teachers (Muralidharan Odisha 13.3
[Link], 2014).
Note: 1. Figures for 2015-16 2. States arranged in increasing order of metric shown
Source: State Budget, 2015-16 (BE), including supplementary grants
Figure 10: Share of Inspection and Monitoring
in School-Education Budget
electricity, toilets and hostels. RTE mandates at least one
Share of inspection & monitoring in school-education budget (Percent)
classroom for every teacher and an office-cum-store-cum-
head teacher’s room, safe and adequate drinking water
Chhattisgarh 0.00
facility for all children, separate toilets for boys and girls, and
Karnataka 0.04
arrangements for securing the school building by boundary
Madhya Pradesh 0.05
wall or fencing. RTE also mandates a functional library and a
Uttar Pradesh 0.39
kitchen shed to run MDM. The RTE-mandated infrastructure
Maharashtra 0.50
requirements are resource-intensive, and government schools
Bihar 0.60 have failed to meet these requirements even after four years
Rajasthan 0.80 of implementation of the Act (See Matrix 4).
Jharkhand 0.90
Tamil Nadu 1.20 Following the commencement of RTE, there was a rush to
Odisha 1.20 develop/build infrastructure to meet RTE norms by 2015. This
is reflected in the relatively high share of infrastructure in the
Note: 1. Figures for 2015-16
2. States arranged in increasing order of metric shown
school-education budget: in 2015-16 (BE), this ranges from 2.6
Source: State Budget, 2015-16 (BE), including supplementary grants percent (Tamil Nadu) to 13.3 percent (Odisha).

30 Priorities Within School-Education Budgets Across States

 How Have States Designed Their School Education Budgets?

Matrix 4: Schools Meeting Select RTE Norms on Infrastructure in 2013-14

Government Government Schools Schools Schools Schools with Schools with Schools
primary upper primary with drinking with girls with ramp playground boundary with kitchen
schools with schools with water facility toilet facility (%) (%) wall (%) shed (%)
SCR > 30 (%) SCR > 35 (%) (%) (%)

Bihar 76 86 92 70 82 34 53 56

Chhattisgarh 21 30 96 80 82 50 57 77

Jharkhand 24 34 91 85 67 32 27 51

Karnataka 5 12 100 100 91 63 73 94

Madhya Pradesh 24 33 96 89 74 60 44 75

Maharashtra 11 19 99 98 89 83 76 57

Odisha 21 37 97 69 84 30 66 58

Rajasthan 15 19 96 96 65 49 83 82

Tamil Nadu 11 34 100 90 85 76 78 95

Uttar Pradesh 35 14 98 97 90 72 68 85

Note: States arranged in alphabetical order Source: RTE 4th Year status Report, MHRD, 2014

Incentives In addition to the Union Government’s interventions,

In India, incentives are given either through direct cash award every state has several policy initiatives to promote education,
(scholarship/stipends) or through non-monetary means like especially among the socially- and economically-weaker
textbooks, uniforms, laptops, etc. to children or incentives to sections of children. For example, the Chief Minister’s
households (usually to parents). Educational incentives are Bicycle scheme in Bihar has increased girls' age-appropriate
given to increase school enrolment, attendance and retention enrolment in secondary school by 30 percent and reduced the
of specific groups in schools by accommodating some of their gender gap in age-appropriate secondary school enrolment by
school-related expenses (or disbursing the actual items), etc. 40 percent (Muralidharan & Prakash, 2013).

Figure 12: Share of Incentives in School- International experience too illustrates the effectiveness
Education Budget of such interventions. In Bangladesh, China, India, Morocco
and Pakistan, introduction of specific interventions for girls—
Share of incentives in school-education budget (Percent)
separate latrines, female teachers, reducing the distance from
Maharashtra 1.9 school, flexible school schedule, double sessions and evening
Karnataka 4.7 school hours—were very effective (Glewwe et. al, 2011).
Rajasthan 6.1
Tamil Nadu 7.8
Educationally-backward states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh,
Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand are spending around
Chhattisgarh 7.9
10 percent or more of their school-education budget to provide
Jharkhand 9.6
incentives to children. Bihar has recently taken several policy
Madhya Pradesh 10.1
initiatives to make education more affordable and accessible to
Odisha 11.8 children. This is reflected in the 22 percent share of incentives
Uttar Pradesh 12.1 in its school-education budget in 2015-16 (BE).
Bihar 21.9

Note: 1. Figures for 2015-16 2. States arranged in increasing order of metric shown By comparison, Maharashtra and Karnataka spent
Source: State Budget, 2015-16 (BE), including supplementary grants less than 5 percent of their school-education budget

Priorities Within School-Education Budgets Across States 31

on monetary and non-monetary incentives for children classrooms built, textbooks are being delivered in time and
(Figure 12). An incentive only offers temporary and partial MDM are being served in school. Special efforts have been
relief. Good quality education for all children is the biggest made to enable girls across the state to continue in school
incentive and educational incentives should not be assumed past the elementary stage, notably distributing bicycles to
to be a substitute for poor learning environment in schools girls going to secondary school. Special efforts have also been
(Ramchandran [Link], 2007; Nawani, 2014). made to target the neediest children.

Yet, Bihar has a shortage of 1.14 lakh primary-school

V.b.: Component-Wise Distribution of teachers. At the secondary level, the pupil- teacher ratio is
57, against the norm of 35. The student-classroom ratio in
School-Education Budget Within States
government secondary-schools is 103. As per the Project
A state-level comparative analysis of distribution of school- Approval Board (PAB) minutes of RMSA (2015), there was
education budget across select components raise several approval for training of 2,214 new teachers, but no process had
questions. How does a state design its school-education begun till December-end. Similarly, only 25 percent of training
budget over time? Is teacher salary appropriating allocations of trainers was completed by December 2015.
required for other components? Have states reprioritised their
allocations across different components in the last four years? As per a report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
When the share of teacher salary is decreasing, is the share of (CAG), Bihar has failed to achieve universalisation of primary
other components increasing significantly? education: 9.5 lakh children at the elementary level are still
out of school (CAG, 2014). The report also highlighted the grim
To get a holistic picture, in this section, the paper state of school infrastructure: 13 per cent of schools were
analyses the distribution of components of school education operating without buildings and 45 percent did not have a toilet
in the total school-education budget for each state for the last facility for girls.
four years.
It is important to analyse how states have designed their
school-education budget in the last four years: whether they
Bihar have reprioritised to address persistent bottlenecks or followed
In recent years, Bihar has prioritised education and worked simple incremental budgeting.
to erase the backlog of schooling provisions that had
accumulated after years of neglect. In a short period of time, Figure 13 shows that teacher salary constitutes the
over 3 lakh teachers have been recruited, about 1 lakh new largest share of the Bihar school-education budget. In 2014-15

Figure 13: Component-Wise Distribution of School-Education Budget: Bihar

2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16
70

60
51.6
50

40

30
21.9
20

10 7.2 8.3 8.8

1.6 0.6
0
Teacher Teacher Incentives Infrastructure Inspection and Mid-day Others
salary training monitoring meal

Note: 1. Figures in percent 2. 2012-13 and 2013-14 figures: Actuals; 2014-15: Revised Estimates; 2015-16: Budget Estimates, including Supplementary Budgets
3. To enable easy reading of the graph, values have been given for each component for the latest year only
Source: Bihar State Budget Documents, 2014-15, 2015-16 and Supplementary Budget documents for 2015-16

32 Priorities Within School-Education Budgets Across States

 How Have States Designed Their School Education Budgets?

Figure 14: Component-Wise Distribution of School-Education Budget: Chhattisgarh

2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16
80

70
61.0
60

50

40

30

20
19.2

10 7.7 6.1 5.4

0.6
0
Teacher salary Teacher training Incentives Infrastructure Mid-day meal Others

Note: 1. Figures in percent 2. 2012-13 and 2013-14 figures: Actuals; 2014-15: Revised Estimates; 2015-16: Budget Estimates, including Supplementary Budgets
3. To enable easy reading of the graph, values have been given for each component for the latest year only
Source: Chhattisgarh State Budget Documents, 2014-15, 2015-16 and Supplementary Budget documents for 2015-16

(RE), its share was around 62 percent, which has become 52 percent in 2015-16 (BE).
percent in 2015-16 (BE), a 10 percentage point drop.
In Bihar, the share of expenditure on infrastructure
The Plan of Action of the National Policy of Education has increased over time, mainly to fulfill the RTE norms
(1992) emphasised the significance of Universalisation of of school infrastructure. There is negligible allocation for
Elementary Education. It suggested providing adequate ‘inspection and monitoring’, with expenditure mostly pertaining
incentives for children of SC, ST and other backward sections, to administrative cost and salary of inspector.
especially girls, in the form of scholarships, uniforms, The spending on teacher training has improved over time,
textbooks and stationery and MDM in consultation with the but was below 1 percent of school-education budget till
State Government. 2014-15 (RE). In 2015-16 (BE), this has increased to 1.6 percent.

In the last few years, Bihar has taken several policy

initiatives to make education more accessible and affordable Chhattisgarh
to children. These initiatives have focused on reducing the In Chhattisgarh, the government manages around 89 percent
‘opportunity cost’ of schooling through incentives like the of elementary schools and 69 percent of secondary schools.
Mukhyamantri Balak/Balika Cycle Yojana, Mukhyamantri However, in the last four years, in spite of an increase in the
Poshak Yojana, Chief Minister Student Incentive Scheme, Girls number of government schools, enrolment has dropped: GER
Hostel, Scholarships for marginalised children (SC, ST, OBC, has reduced from 101 in 2012-13 to 91 in 2015-16. So has the
minorities, girls), etc. This reflects in the incentive component transition rate from upper primary to secondary level, from
exceeding 15 percent in the budget pie; its share was as high as 92 percent in 2012-13 to 86 percent in 2015-16.
25 percent in 2013-14.
There is 32 percent vacancy of teachers in government
MDM, which is also an incentive for children to increase schools. In 2015-16, under RMSA, against the 1,356
and retain enrolment, has been considered as a separate sanctioned posts of multi-task staff, only six were in position.
component in this analysis. In Bihar, MDM is functioning as Only 69 percent teachers in government secondary schools
‘Dopahar’ in 70,238 schools, covering about 10 million children are professionally qualified. Besides a shortage of qualified
from class I to VIII. In addition to this centrally-sponsored teachers, schools are also suffering from the absence of
scheme, the component also includes nutritional interventions basic school infrastructure. Around 20 percent schools in
by State Governments in schools under their state plans. Chhattisgarh don’t have a drinking water facility, only 53
Unfortunately, in Bihar, the share of MDM in school-education percent have usable separate toilets for girls and 11 percent
budget has decreased from 10.5 percent in 2012-13 to 8.3 have no library (ASER, 2014).

Priorities Within School-Education Budgets Across States 33

Figure 15: Component-Wise Distribution of School-Education Budget: Jharkhand
2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16

70

60
54.0
50

40

30

20
12.5 13.3
9.6 9.3
10
0.4 0.9
0
Teacher Teacher Incentives Infrastructure Inspection and Mid-day Others
salary training monitoring meal

Note: 1. Figures in percent 2. 2012-13 and 2013-14 figures: Actuals; 2014-15: Revised Estimates; 2015-16: Budget Estimates, including Supplementary Budgets
3. To enable easy reading of the graph, values have been given for each component for the latest year only
Source: Jharkhand State Budget Documents, 2014-15, 2015-16 and Supplementary Budget documents for 2015-16

Like Bihar, Chhattisgarh also spends around 60 percent decreased: from 10 percent in 2012-13 to 5.4 percent in
of its school-education budget on teacher salaries. The year 2015-16 (BE).
2013-14 was an exception, and the state spent 67 percent of
its total budget on salary and allowances to teachers, possibly
because of a smaller total budget than other years. Jharkhand
The performance of secondary education in Jharkhand is
Elsewhere, in 2015-16 (BE), about 19 percent of deteriorating compared to elementary education. Between
the school-education budget was allocated under ‘other’ 2012-13 and 2015-16, the transition rate from elementary
expenditure, which consists of direction and administration to secondary level has dropped from 83 percent to 79
cost, as well as expenditure where the purpose for which the percent, and the dropout rate has increased from 4 percent
money is allocated is not specified (Figure 14). CAG has been to 9 percent. About 78 percent posts of regular teachers in
critical of such unspecified spending and has suggested doing government secondary schools lie vacant, resulting in the
away with it. However, in Chhattisgarh, a major share of this PTR increasing to 93 in 2015-16.
‘other’ component is unspecified spending.
Although the situation is better at the elementary level,
More than 45 percent of school-going children in there is an urgent need to review enrolment rates in Jharkhand
Chhattisgarh belongs to Scheduled Tribes. Therefore, a major in relation to PTR and Student Class Ratio (SCR). As much as
part of incentives goes to ST children as scholarships and 65.3 per cent of its enrolment in primary schools (against the
stipends. The state also provides incentives through schemes national average of 40.8 percent) is in schools with PTR above
like Saraswati Cycle Yojana, free textbooks, free uniforms and 30. Likewise, at the upper primary level, with 62.9 percent of
student accident insurance scheme. However, in the absence enrolment in schools (against the national average of 31 per
of allocations for pre-matric and post-matric scholarships in cent) with PTR above 35 (Rustagi & Menon, 2013).
2015-16 (BE), the share of incentives has reduced as compared
to 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15 (RE). Jharkhand has failed to achieve RTE norms for
infrastructure. Although 80 percent of schools have drinking
Chhattisgarh has made no allocation for inspection and water facility, only 53 percent have usable toilets and 48
monitoring in the last four years. In 2014-15, Rs 1,073 crore percent have a separate toilet for girls.
was allocated under SSA to create capital assets in school,
which increased the share of infrastructure in the total school- In Jharkhand, half the school-education budget goes
education budget. However, this share has since fallen by 7.5 towards teacher salary. However, its spending on teacher
percentage points between 2014-15 (RE) and 2015-16 (BE). training is the lowest. Between 2012-13 and 2015-16 (BE),
As in Bihar, the expenditure on MDM in Chhattisgarh has also though, the share of teacher training has increased from

34 Priorities Within School-Education Budgets Across States

 How Have States Designed Their School Education Budgets?

0.2 percent to 0.4 percent. Like Bihar and Chhattisgarh, in out of seven elementary schools are either run or supported by
Jharkhand too, the nutritional intervention for school children the government (RMSA Annual report, 2014-15). As per
is on the decline: expenditure on MDM in total school- official data, 41 percent of school-going children in Karnataka
education budget dropped from 14.2 percent in 2012-13 to 9.3 are in schools funded by the Department of Education.
percent in 2015-16 (BE). Enrolment and retention of students in Karnataka is high.
There is, however, a large difference in the SCR across districts:
Other than scholarships from the Union Government, for example, Hassan has 42 students in a class, but Belagum
the state also allocates a substantial amount as monetary has 136.
and non-monetary incentives to students, especially at the
secondary level. State plan schemes include the Mukhyamantri Karnataka schools perform well on infrastructural
Ekikrita Bal Chatravritti Yojana; school bags/sweaters, shoes facilities such as classrooms, electricity, drinking water facility,
and socks in residential schools; free distribution of dress, common toilets, toilets for girls and ramps for children with
textbooks and solar lamps to girl students of class IX-XII; special needs. More than 99 percent schools in Karnataka have
and scholarships to minority and OBC students. The share of provisions for drinking water and separate toilet for girls.
incentives in the school-education budget was 9.6 percent in
2015-16 (BE), an increase of 1.5 percentage points over 2012-13 Schools in Karnataka, however, face a huge teacher
(Figure 15). An increasing trend is also observed in the ‘others’ shortage. According to DISE, 2015-16, 767 schools have no
category, a large amount of which is reported as ‘assistance teacher, 5,503 have only one and 14,667 have just two. Five
grants (non-salary)’. educational districts (Kalaburgi, Bengaluru South, Tumakuru,
Chikkamangaluru and Mysuru) have more than 100 schools
with no teacher.
Karnataka
Two-thirds of the population of Karnataka is literate. The nodal Following the 2015-16 main budget announcements,
ministry for school education in Karnataka is the Minister for Karnataka announced two supplementary budgets of Rs.
Primary and Secondary Education. Some facilitative functions 10,708 crore. However, the state reduced its allocation
are also managed by Department for Backward Classes and for school education in 2015-16 after the supplementary
Minorities, Department of Social Welfare, Department of grant allocation. Although not a normal practice, there is no
Women and Child Development, and Department of Rural explanation for this budget cut in any government notice or
Development and Panchayati Raj. budget document.

There are 74,953 schools in the state: 26,057 lower Around 70-80 percent of Karnataka’s school-education
primary, 34,427 higher primary and 14,469 high schools. Four budget goes towards teacher salaries. However, in the last four

Figure 16: Component-Wise Distribution of School-Education Budget: Karnataka

2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16
90

80
71.6
70

60

50

40

30

20
8.9 9.5
10
4.2 5.3
0.5 0.04
0
Teacher Teacher Incentives Infrastructure Inspection and Mid-day Others
salary training monitoring meal

Note: 1. Figures in percent 2. 2012-13 and 2013-14 figures: Actuals; 2014-15: Revised Estimates; 2015-16: Budget Estimates, including Supplementary Budgets
3. To enable easy reading of the graph, values have been given for each component for the latest year only
Source: Karnataka State Budget Documents, 2014-15, 2015-16 and Supplementary Budget documents for 2015-16

Priorities Within School-Education Budgets Across States 35

years, the government has failed to spend on teacher training, about 35 percent children in class VIII could not even read class
and monitoring and inspection, two key components of quality II textbooks (ASER, 2014). The situation is even more dismal
education (Figure 16). in government schools. An acute shortage of professionally-
qualified teachers and absence of infrastructure are the main
The share of expenditure on infrastructure has increased reasons for this poor performance.
from 4.7 percent in 2012-13 to 10.2 percent in 2015-16 (BE).
Most of this expenditure went towards constructing and In Madhya Pradesh, the government manages
maintaining residential school buildings and hostels for SC, 80 percent of elementary schools and 53 percent of secondary
ST and OBC students, and was done by the Social Welfare schools. There are 19,269 (or 13.5 percent) single-teacher
Department through the State Development Plan. schools in the state. This number varies across districts:
from 58 schools in Neemuch to 1,587 schools in Rewa. Only
Karnataka has also increased its spending on student 48 percent elementary schools meet the norm of 30:1 pupil-
incentives, from 2.7 percent in 2012-13 to 4.5 percent in 2015- teacher ratio.
16 (BE). Some major policy initiatives aimed at reducing the
cost of education for children include the Vidya Vikash Scheme, Around 77 percent of teachers in Karnataka are
scholarships to Jain community students, scholarships professionally-trained. The situation is more dismal at the
to persons with disabilities, and financial assistance and secondary level. Under RMSA, only 28 percent posts for
reimbursement of fees to children studying in Sainik Schools at headmasters and 49 percent posts for regular teachers were
the secondary level. filled by 2015. The drop-out rate at the secondary level has
increased to 16.6 percent in 2015-16. Infrastructure, too,
MDM, which run as ‘Akshara Dasoha’ in Karnataka, is deficient: 25 percent schools don’t have a provision for
also covers children of class IX and X of government- and drinking water, 59 percent don’t have a separate, usable toilet
government-aided schools, and provides milk to students of for girls, and 10 percent don’t have kitchen shed for MDM.
class I to X thrice a week. Karnataka is the only state where the
share of MDM in the school-education budget has increased, From 2012-13 to 2014-15 (RE), around 70 percent of
from 8.2 percent in 2012-13 to 9.5 percent in 2015-16 (BE). the state’s school-education budget was spent on teacher
salaries. This fell to 64 percent in 2015-16 (BE). Besides paying
teacher salaries in state-run schools, the state government
Madhya Pradesh also provides a substantial amount of resources as grants to
For several years, Madhya Pradesh was one of the poor- urban and rural local bodies for teacher salaries. Since Madhya
performing states in the education ladder. As per ASER data, Pradesh has a high proportion of SC and ST population, it also

Figure 17: Component-Wise Distribution of School-Education Budget: Madhya Pradesh

2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16

80

70
63.7
60

50

40

30

20
10.1 12.4
10 6.3 7.2
0.2 0.04
0
Teacher Teacher Infrastructure Incentives Inspection and Mid-day Others
salary training monitoring meal

Note: 1. Figures in percent 2. 2012-13 and 2013-14 figures: Actuals; 2014-15: Revised Estimates; 2015-16: Budget Estimates, including Supplementary Budgets
3. To enable easy reading of the graph, values have been given for each component for the latest year only
Source: Madhya Pradesh State Budget Documents, 2014-15, 2015-16 and Supplementary Budget documents for 2015-16

36 Priorities Within School-Education Budgets Across States

 How Have States Designed Their School Education Budgets?

has a large number of Ashram schools, Kasturba Gandhi Balika The State Government has provided inclusive education
Vidyalaya (KGBV), or residential schools for SC and ST girls. to all identified children with special needs (CWSN) during
Hence, a part of the teacher salary also goes towards these 2010-14 either through enrolment in general schools or
special-purpose schools. through home-based education. But there were shortfalls in
providing barrier-free access and toilet facilities to CWSN in
About 42 percent of the enrolment at the elementary 4,669 schools and 15,947 schools, respectively, out of 66,444
level and 30 percent at the secondary level is from the SC schools in the state (CAG, 2015). Monitoring of the SSA-
and ST category (DISE, 2014-15). Incentives for students are RTE Act suffered from various kinds of shortfalls: meetings
mostly targeted towards girls and children from the scheduled by School Management Committees at the school level,
categories. As the incidence of drop-out is high among girls, the inspection of schools by Block Education Officers at the block
government has initiated a number of interventions like Kanya level and meetings by the Governing Body and the Executive
Shiksha Parisar , transport facilities, free bicycle, free uniform Committee of Maharashtra Prathamik Shikshan Parishad at
and scholarship for girl students of class IX to XI to retain them the state level.
in schools. A major portion of this incentive component is for
reimbursement to non-government schools for admission under As at the elementary level, vacancies are also seen at
RTE, and admission of SC and ST children at the secondary the secondary level. Under RMSA, the headmaster’s post is
level in Sainik Schools and non-government schools. The share vacant in 52 percent schools, and there’s 9 percent vacancy
of incentives in the Madhya Pradesh school-education budget for teachers in secondary school. The gender parity index has
is stagnant at around 10 percent in the last three years. The declined in last one year. A major reason for this is the absence
exception was 2013-14, when it was 7.3 percent. of girl’s hostels: as per RMSA PAB minutes, in 2015, against the
approved number of 43 girl’s hostels, work has been taken up
The Panchayat and Rural Development Department in only seven and none is functional.
in Madhya Pradesh is the nodal agency for MDM. Presently,
the scheme covers around 71 lakh children of government- Like all other states, the largest share of Maharashtra’s
and government-aided primary and upper primary schools, school-education budget goes towards teacher salaries: 78
National Child Labour Project (NCLP) schools and Madrasas. percent in 2012-13, falling to 69 percent in 2015-16 (BE) (Figure
Although there is an increase in enrolment, and hence coverage 18). In order to motivate schoolteachers, the government has
of MDM, in the last four years, the share of MDM in the total taken policy measures like giving awards to primary teachers
school-education budget has dropped from 8.8 percent in for enrolment of girls in schools, free education to children of
2012-13 to 7.2 percent in 2012-13. primary teachers, delinked insurance scheme for staff of aided
non-government primary schools and awards to outstanding
The share of infrastructure in the school-education primary schools in rural areas. However, there is marginal or
budget is increasing. In 2014-15 (RE) and 2015-16 (BE), the zero allocation under these schemes in the last two years.
government spent mostly on completion of incomplete
schools under SSA, management and establishment of model Teacher training and inspection and monitoring, two
schools under RMSA and the 13th Finance Commission’s grant important components of quality education, are ill-funded:
on construction work. Unfortunately, the share of teacher the share of each component was below 0.5 percent in each
training, and inspection and monitoring, has been stagnant, of the last four years. A component ‘evaluation of all schemes
and together constitutes less than 0.5 percent of the school- by other network’ in the education budget document seems
education budget. to have been introduced to monitor schemes designed for
improvement in elementary education. Unfortunately, in the
last four years, there is no allocation or expenditure incurred
Maharashtra under this head.
Private-aided and private-unaided schools dominate the
school education system in Maharashtra. At the elementary The share of infrastructure in the school-education
level, the government runs 69 percent of schools, but only budget shows an increasing trend. The major share
17 percent at the secondary level. Although Maharashtra has of expenditure under ‘infrastructure’ is going towards
registered an increase in GER at both the elementary and construction and maintenance of Ashram schools, post basic
secondary levels in the last four years, the performance audit ashramshala and residential schools/hostels for SC students
of ‘Implementation of SSA’ for the period 2010-14 revealed and new Boudhas in societies, and maintenance grant to non-
inadequate institutional arrangements in the state for effective government schools.
implementation of the SSA-RTE Act. The overall shortfall of
teachers vis-a-vis sanctioned posts under SSA, as of March Most scholarships and stipends to SC, ST and OBC
2014, was 63 percent. children come under Central Sector schemes. In addition,

Priorities Within School-Education Budgets Across States 37

 Figure 18: Component-Wise Distribution of School-Education Budget: Maharashtra
2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16

90

80
68.8
70

60

50

40

30
20.6
20

10
1.9 3.8 4.0
0.4 0.5
0
Teacher Teacher Incentives Infrastructure Inspection and Mid-day Others
salary training monitoring meal

Note: 1. Figures in percent 2. 2012-13 and 2013-14 figures: Actuals; 2014-15: Revised Estimates; 2015-16: Budget Estimates, including Supplementary Budgets
3. To enable easy reading of the graph, values have been given for each component for the latest year only
Source: Maharashtra State Budget Documents, 2014-15, 2015-16 and Supplementary Budget documents for 2015-16

under the state plan, Maharashtra has introduced several went on to complete class IX and X; further, 9.58 percent girl
policy initiatives like attendance allowance to girls from children dropped out (CAG, 2014).
economically-weaker sections, free education to children
of freedom fighters, education concessions to children (up In order to encourage girls to study at the elementary
to class XII) of Vidarbha farmers to avoid parent suicides, level, under SSA, Odisha had appointed 50 percent women
scholarships to tribal girls to reduce drop-outs, especially teachers. According to CAG, between 2009 and 2015, the
among girls. The government also provides some non- recruitment of women teachers at the elementary level across
monetary incentives to students through policy initiatives like districts varies from 24.3 percent to 49.3 percent. In 2015-
book banks, production of books in tribal dialects, increase 16, under RMSA, there is 37 percent vacancy for the post of
in amenities in residential ashramshalas and hostels for headmasters and 66 percent vacancy for the post of regular
vimuktajati and nomadic tribe students etc. The share of MDM teachers.
in the school-education budget is stagnant at 4 percent for the
last two years. Although the state government is looking to recruit
more teachers, there is a severe shortage of trained teachers.
Very few candidates cleared the mandatory TET test and the
Odisha existing teacher-training institutes meet just 12 percent of the
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and Kasturba Gandhi Balika total teacher requirement. Despite a large number of out-of-
Vidyalaya (KGBV) are the two major schemes in Odisha to school children, between 2009 and 2014, the government
meet elementary education needs. Although the number of mainstreamed only 55 percent girl children enrolled under
government schools in the state has increased in the last four NCLP school.
years, overall enrolment and GER have fallen. As of March 2015,
there were 59,047 primary and upper primary schools, and The last four years have seen a marginal improvement
9,491 secondary schools, functioning in the state. in most schools in terms of infrastructure building under
RTE norms. PTR has increased from 28 percent in 2012 to
However, enrolment dropped from 65 lakh in 2010 to 63 38.6 percent in 2014. About 19 percent schools did not have
lakh in 2015, and GER at the primary level fell from 99 in 2010- a drinking water facility, 47 percent had no provision for
11 to 92.7 in 2014-15. Between 2012 and 2015, enrolment of girl separate toilets for girls, 12 percent did not have a library
child has improved, and the drop-out rate in both elementary (ASER, 2014).
and secondary levels has decreased. However, class-wise
data of enrolment shows that between 2009-10 and 2013-14, Odisha spends 50-60 percent of its total school-
only 78 percent children who studied between class V and VIII education budget on teacher salary (Figure 19); this share has

38 Priorities Within School-Education Budgets Across States

 How Have States Designed Their School Education Budgets?

Figure 19: Component-Wise Distribution of School-Education Budget: Odisha

2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16

70

60
54.3
50

40

30

20
13.5
11.7 11.8
10 7.2
0.3 1.2
0
Teacher Teacher Incentives Infrastructure Inspection and Mid-day Others
salary training monitoring meal

Note: 1. Figures in percent 2. 2012-13 and 2013-14 figures: Actuals; 2014-15: Revised Estimates; 2015-16: Budget Estimates, including Supplementary Budgets
3. To enable easy reading of the graph, values have been given for each component for the latest year only
Source: Odisha State Budget Documents, 2014-15, 2015-16 and Supplementary Budget documents for 2015-16

reduced from 60 percent in 2012-13 to 54 percent Rajasthan

in 2015-16 (BE). This reprioratisation of budgets has About 66 percent of elementary schools and 50 percent of
increased expenditure on other components of school secondary schools in Rajasthan are run by the government.
education like infrastructure, incentives, and inspection and However, their condition is dismal. Around 33 percent schools
monitoring. During 2015-16, the Union Government stopped don’t meet the RTE norm on pupil-teacher ratio. As per DISE,
funding the State Government for infrastructure development the state has 49,853 primary schools, 51,955 upper primary
in upper primary schools. Funds for only 82 schools were schools, 15,503 secondary schools and 8,144 senior secondary
released under the RMSA during the year and a large schools.
numbers of toilets have remained incomplete. Later,
through its supplementary budget, the State Government They have over 4 lakh teachers, which is about 70,000
allocated an additional Rs. 380 crore for infrastructure less than needed to meet the RTE standard (DISE, 2014).
development. In order to address this shortage, Rajasthan has started
appointing contractual teachers known as ‘shiksha karmis’.
In the last four years, the share of incentives in However, till date, only two TETs have been conducted in the
the school-education budget has increased from 7 percent state. In the teacher’s training programme, the state achieved a
to 12 percent. Besides free textbooks, the State Government target of just 39 percent under RMSA in 2014.
has directed resources to the secondary level: these
include distribution of free bicycles to all Class X girl Infrastructure is also an issue across school categories.
students in government- and government-aided high There’s no power supply in 60,000 schools, no separate
schools; supply of free uniform to ST/SC students of class usable toilets for girls in 23 percent schools and no provision
IX to XII of high schools and higher secondary schools for drinking water in 27 percent schools (ASER, 2014). The
under ST & SC Development Department, promotion of 100 state also shows slow progress in civil works, especially at the
ST/SC students to study in the best residential schools in secondary level.
the state.
Teacher salaries account for above 80 percent of
Although the State Government spends over 1 percent Rajasthan’s school-education budget in the last four years.
of its school-education budget on inspection and monitoring, Other important components—infrastructure, teacher
the expenditure goes mainly towards salaries of inspectors and training, inspection and monitoring, MDM and incentives—
official expenses. Odisha is another state where the share of together constitute 12-15 percent, with the remaining going
MDM in the school-education budget has declined in the last towards administrative costs and miscellaneous expenditure
two years. (Figure 20).

Priorities Within School-Education Budgets Across States 39

 Figure 20: Component-Wise Distribution of School-Education Budget: Rajasthan
2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16

90
80.4
80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10 5.4 6.1 4.2

0.8 2.8
0.3
0
Teacher Teacher Infrastructure Incentives Inspection and Mid-day Others
salary training monitoring meal

Note: 1. Figures in percent 2. 2012-13 and 2013-14 figures: Actuals; 2014-15: Revised Estimates; 2015-16: Budget Estimates, including Supplementary Budgets
3. To enable easy reading of the graph, values have been given for each component for the latest year only
Source: Rajasthan State Budget Documents, 2014-15, 2015-16 and Supplementary Budget documents for 2015-16

MDM is operational in 71,000 elementary schools in (95 percent).

Rajasthan and services 72.5 lakh children. While the share of
infrastructure in the school-education budget has increased Tamil Nadu has 5.58 lakh teachers at the elementary and
marginally, the shares of MDM and incentives has fallen. secondary levels. As per Education Department data for 2014-
15, there was a shortage of 32,888 teachers at the primary level
In order to reduce the cost of schooling for parents, and 5,063 teachers at the high-school level. The government
Rajasthan has launched several state plan schemes to has tried to bridge this shortfall by appointing 15,980 guest
provide monetary and non-monetary incentives to children, teachers for primary classes and 1,727 guest teachers for high
especially for girls in tribal areas. These include distribution schools during this period, and it is still appointing contractual
of transport vouchers to girl students in rural areas of ST teachers.
region, Accidental Bima Scheme for students of ST Region,
fixed deposits for class X to XII girl students in KGBV, In 2015-16, there were 78 percent regular teachers and 21
health insurance scheme at the elementary school level, percent contractual teachers, and about 97 percent teachers
Sikshakkaapna Vidyalaya (education voucher) for class I to V were professionally trained (DISE, 2015-16). Compared to other
in non-government schools, residential schools for children states, Tamil Nadu performs better at the secondary level.
whose families are involved in the cattle trade. So far, major There is no headmaster vacancy and only 7 percent posts for
spending under incentives has been towards free laptops regular teachers are vacant under RMSA.
and uniforms, reimbursement of fees to non-government
schools for admitting students from economically-weaker In Tamil Nadu, government schools are faring better
sections, and admission of SC/ST children at the than their private peers on learning outcomes, though both
secondary level. categories show a decline in standards. Tamil Nadu is also
performing better on basic school infrastructure: around 80
percent of schools have drinking water facility, 69 percent have
Tamil Nadu separate usable toilets for girls, 98 percent have kitchen shed
Over time, the enrolment pattern in Tamil Nadu has shifted for MDM and 87 percent have library facilities (ASER, 2014).
from government schools to private schools. Currently, the
government runs 66 percent of elementary schools and 52 In terms of budget composition, the largest share of
percent of secondary schools in Tamil Nadu. The state is one Tamil Nadu’s school-education budget goes towards teacher
of the greater achievers in education, as reflected in its high salaries: 76 percent in 2012-13 and 67 percent in 2015-16
literacy rate (80.3 percent), high GER at the elementary level (BE) (Figure 21). This not only includes salaries of teachers
(96) and high transition rate from primary to upper primary in government schools, but also those in government-aided

40 Priorities Within School-Education Budgets Across States

 How Have States Designed Their School Education Budgets?

Figure 21: Component-Wise Distribution of School-Education Budget: Tamil Nadu

2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16

80

70 67.0

60

50

40

30

20
14.9
10 7.8 6.2
0.3 2.6 1.2
0
Teacher Teacher Incentives Infrastructure Inspection and Mid-day Others
salary training monitoring meal

Note: 1. Figures in percent 2. 2012-13 and 2013-14 figures: Actuals; 2014-15: Revised Estimates; 2015-16: Budget Estimates, including Supplementary Budgets
3. To enable easy reading of the graph, values have been given for each component for the latest year only
Source: Tamil Nadu State Budget Documents, 2014-15, 2015-16 and Supplementary Budget documents for 2015-16

high schools and higher secondary schools, schools for the students, but later extended to class X. The scheme also
differently-abled and denotified community schools. The covers working children in 16 districts through the NCLP
government has also introduced a special provident fund project. While the Education Department is the nodal agency in
and gratuity scheme for municipal and corporate elementary most states for MDM, in Tamil Nadu, it is the Social Welfare and
schools, and aided educational institutions. Nutritious Meal Programme Department. The government has
also introduced a scheme called ‘new programme for feeding
Among other budget components, Tamil Nadu spends poor children in the age group of 10-15 years in the denotified
a relatively higher amount on incentives. It has launched community school’. However, there is meagre allocation to this
several schemes in the last 10 years to increase enrolment scheme in the last four years. For all its successes, the share of
and reduce the cost of schooling for parents. The government MDM in Tamil Nadu’s school-education budget is decreasing
provides financial aid to children whose parents are dead over time.
or permanently incapacitated; children of migrant workers;
children of prisoners; children of poorer widows; or under the
chief minister’s farmer security scheme, to children who have Uttar Pradesh
passed class X. About 66 percent of elementary schools and 8 percent of
secondary schools in Uttar Pradesh (UP) are managed by the
Among the 10 study states, Tamil Nadu shows higher government (DISE, 2014-15). Current patterns of enrolment
spend on differently-abled children. The state also provides indicate a shift in preference from government schools to
non-monetary incentives to students like free bags, sweaters, private schools. Around 41 percent children in the 6-14 years
uniforms, bicycles, footwear, computers and transport age group are enrolled in government schools and 52 percent
facilities to students from hilly or remotely-located areas. The in privately-managed schools (ASER, 2014).
government has tried to address the issue of lingual diversity
by printing textbooks in Tamil, English, Urdu and Braille. In the In the initial years of SSA, the thrust in UP was on
last four years, to promote sports in schools, the government bridging gaps in school infrastructure. However, 15 percent
has organised various sports and chess competitions at the schools still don’t have a drinking water facility, 51 percent
national and state levels. don’t have separate usable toilets for girls and 26 percent don’t
have a library (ASER, 2014). These infrastructural bottlenecks
The MDM Scheme in Tamil Nadu, which is popularly may be one of the reasons for the large number of out-of-
known as ‘Puratchi Thalaivar MGR Meal Programme’ is one school children.
of the largest in coverage: about 470 lakh children benefitted
in 2013. The scheme was initially launched for class I to V Among the 10 study states, UP has the maximum

Priorities Within School-Education Budgets Across States 41

 Figure 22: Component-Wise Distribution of School-Education Budget: Uttar Pradesh
2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16

80
74.5
70

60

50

40

30

20
12.1
10 6.3
3.2 3.2
0.3 0.4
0
Teacher Teacher Incentives Infrastructure Inspection and Mid-day Others
salary training monitoring meal

Note: 1. Figures in percent 2. 2012-13 and 2013-14 figures: Actuals; 2014-15: Revised Estimates; 2015-16: Budget Estimates, including Supplementary Budgets
3. To enable easy reading of the graph, values have been given for each component for the latest year only
Source: Uttar Pradesh State Budget Documents, 2014-15, 2015-16 and Supplementary Budget documents for 2015-16

number of school teachers. In 2014-15, there were around infrastructure in its total school-education budget. In 2015-
2.5 lakh schools in the state, and 8.98 lakh regular teachers 16 (BE), it allocated Rs 342 crore from the SSA budget to
and 1.3 lakh para-teachers (familiar as ‘shikshamitra’). At create infrastructure in primary and upper primary schools,
the same time, UP has the second-highest number of single- probably to meet infrastructure norms mandated under RTE.
teacher schools: 17,602 primary and secondary schools Due to the higher percentage of Muslim children in UP, the
(ToI, 2016). government also spends substantial amount on schemes like
minority scholarships, construction of hostels for minority
Teacher salaries constitute the largest share of UP’s students, modernisation of Madrasas, and construction and
school-education budget. This component also includes grants running of schools under the Multi Sectoral Development
to subject experts of non-government higher secondary schools Programme (MSDP).
as honorarium. In 2013-14 and 2014-15, the ‘Kanya Vidya Dhan
Scheme’ for girls who are unable to pursue higher education As per state records, 1.78 crore children of Class I
due to financial problems and the ‘free distribution of tablets to VIII studying in government schools, government-aided
and laptops to class X and XII students’ scheme were launched. schools, NCLP schools and Madrasas are covered under
However, both were not being implemented in 2014-15 and MDM. In the last four years, the coverage has increased by
2015-16, which may be a reason for the share of incentives in 40 percent. The State Government has launched a unique
the school-education budget falling in 2014-15 (RE) and 2015- scheme called ‘Cloud Telephony’ to monitor whether daily
16 (BE). The State Government also has a scheme to provide mid-day meals are being delivered in government schools or
grants for marriage and further education of Class X pass not. However, like most other study states, UP too has seen
Muslim girls in below poverty line families. But the lens through the share of MDM in its school-education budget decline,
which this policy has been framed is skewed and questionable. from 4.6 percent in 2012-13 to 3.2 percent in 2015-16 (BE).
And its spend on teacher training, and school inspection and
Over time, UP has been able to increase the share of monitoring, is nominal.

42 Priorities Within School-Education Budgets Across States

 How Have States Designed Their School Education Budgets?

CHAPTER VI

How Inclusive is School

Education: An Exploration from
a Budgetary Lens

T
his part of the report scrutinises how inclusive compared to that of the general population.
budgetary allocations are in different states. The
analysis examines inclusion for three of the most Literature shows SC children have an ‘intrinsic
deprived sections of children: disadvantage’: they are less likely to go to school than
a. Socially- and economically-weaker children other children, even after controlling for household wealth,
b. Girl children parental education and motivation, school quality and
c. Out-of-school children (OOSC) related variables. This suggests a persistence of an overall
bias against SC children in the schooling system, in spite
of positive discrimination in pupil incentives (Dreze and
VI.a. Intervention for Marginalised Kingdon, 1999).
Children
The Indian population consists of 16 percent SCs, 9 percent It’s not just socially- or economically-deprived children.
STs and 13 percent Muslim population (Census, 2011). Around Even children with special needs are not being adequately
22 percent of population is below poverty line (Planning covered and they have not benefited from basic education. A
Commission, 2014). The Indian Constitution acknowledges recent survey shows that 2.97 percent of children in the 6-13
centuries of social, economic and educational deprivation years age group are out of school. Religion data shows that
suffered by SCs, STs, OBCs and religious minorities. Specific Muslims have the highest proportion of OOSC (4.43 percent),
provisions were incorporated into the Constitution, and states followed by Hindus (2.73 percent). A disaggregation by social
were directed to promote the educational and economic groups shows that STs have the highest proportion of OOSC
interest of people from these communities. In spite of the (4.2 percent) followed by SCs (3.24 percent) (Figure 23).
government’s intentions, the progress of schooling among
children of these communities has been relatively poor This section examines how the school-education budget
is designed to promote education for children from SC, ST,
Figure 23: Out-of-School Children by OBC and minority communities, those from economically-
weaker sections and those with special needs.
Socio-Economic Category
Percentage of out-of-school children in category In all 10 study states, the major share of public
expenditure on education for SCs/STs is carried out from
All children* 3.0
the SCSP and TSP. In addition, the Department of Social
SC children 3.2 Welfare and Department of Minority Welfare also spend a
substantial amount towards such expenditure. Resources
ST children 4.2
from these departments are generally allocated for various
Hindu children 2.7 scholarship schemes, and construction of residential schools
and hostels. In most states, the Department of School
Muslim children 4.4
Education or Department of Social Welfare is also responsible
Disabled children 28.1 for education of children with disabilities. The exception is
Slum children 2.4 Tamil Nadu, which has a dedicated Department for Welfare of
Differently Abled Persons.
*6-13 years; Source: SRI-IMRB, 2014

How Inclusive is School Education: An Exploration from a Budgetary Lens 43

Figure 24: Share of Spending on Educational Intervention for Marginalised Children in
School-Education Budget
Educational intervention for marginalised children as % of school-education budget

2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16

60

49.1
50

40

32.6
30
25.3
22.6
19.9
20
14.6 13.4
13.0 12.6
10 7.0

0
Bihar Chhattisgarh Jharkhand Karnataka Madhya Maharashtra Odisha Rajasthan Tamil Nadu Uttar Pradesh
Pradesh
Note: 1. 2012-13 and 2013-14 figures: Actuals; 2014-15: Revised Estimates; 2015-16: Budget Estimates, including Supplementary Budgets 2. States arranged in alphabetical order
3. To enable easy reading of the graph, values have been given for each state for the latest year only
Source: State Budget Documents, 2014-15, 2015-16 and Supplementary Budget Documents for 2015-16

Figure 24 shows Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and girls’ education. In Odisha, some of the interventions where
Chhattisgarh are spending more than 20 percent of a relatively greater amount has being allocated are the
their school-education budget on marginalised children. construction of hostels for ST girls under special plan for
Chhattisgarh, which has a high share of SC/ST population, undivided Koraput, Bolangir and Kalahandi (KBK) district;
spends around 50 percent. In Karnataka, Bihar and Jharkhand, distribution of free bicycles to all girls of class X in government
the share of this allocation has increased by more than 5 and government-aided high schools; and Department for
percentage points in the last four years. By comparison, in International Development-assisted top-up pre-matric
Uttar Pradesh, the share of this allocation has halved. scholarship for ST girls.

In Rajasthan, the largest share of budget for girls’

VI.b. Intervention for Girl Child education is spent at the secondary level on girls schools
The last two decades have seen several policy measures to and hostels. Besides that, a substantial amount is spent on
promote girls’ education. Yet, gender disparities in education construction and maintenance of hostels for SC/ST girls.
persist. Although the gender gap has narrowed at the
elementary level, it remains significant at the secondary and Between 2012-13 and 2015-16 (BE), Jharkhand has
higher education levels (Matrix 5). increased the share of this spend by 1.6 percentage points. It
has mostly spent on construction and maintenance of Indira
Government interventions to promote access, enrolment Gandhi Residential girls’ school and support to KGBV in civil
or retention also benefits girls. However, evidence shows works. Its Minority Welfare Department has made several
that general interventions are insufficient to address gender interventions for girls, including the construction of minority
inequality. Additional and specific interventions for girls hostels and distribution of cycles to minority girls. In the last
are needed. Therefore, it is important to see the nature of two years, a substantial amount is being allocated under
interventions these 10 states are making while designing their special component plan for Babu Jagjivan Ram Girls hostel and
school-education budget. free education for girls up to intermediate level.

Figure 25 shows that, in 2015-16 (BE), Odisha spends The withdrawal of the Kanya Vidya Dhan Scheme
the highest on girls’ education, followed by Rajasthan. probably explains the reduction in the share of intervention
However, even the highest-spending states are allocating less for girls in the Uttar Pradesh school-education budget. In the
than 6 percent of their school-education budget to promote last four years, only Jharkhand, Odisha and Maharashtra have

44 How Inclusive is School Education: An Exploration from a Budgetary Lens

 How Have States Designed Their School Education Budgets?

Figure 25: Share of Spending on Educational Intervention for Girls in School-Education Budget
Educational intervention for girls as % of school-education budget

2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16

7.0

6.0 5.9 5.8

5.0
4.4
4.0

3.0

2.0
2.0

1.0 0.7 0.6 0.7

0.4 0.5
0.2
0
Bihar Chhattisgarh Jharkhand Karnataka Madhya Maharashtra Odisha Rajasthan Tamil Nadu Uttar Pradesh
Pradesh
Note: 1. 2012-13 and 2013-14 figures: Actuals; 2014-15: Revised Estimates; 2015-16: Budget Estimates, including Supplementary Budgets
2. States arranged in alphabetical order 3. To enable easy reading of the graph, values have been given for each state for the latest year only
Source: State Budget Documents, 2014-15, 2015-16 and Supplementary Budget Documents for 2015-16

Matrix 5: Net Attendance Ratio for Girls at Various Levels of Education

Net Attendance Ratio (%)
Primary Upper primary Secondary Higher secondary

Bihar 77 52 39 23

Chhattisgarh 83 62 58 43

Jharkhand 80 51 44 22

Karnataka 90 76 76 52

Madhya Pradesh 83 66 48 29

Maharashtra 89 70 64 46

Odisha 88 66 65 32

Rajasthan 80 51 39 22

Tamil Nadu 88 69 69 58

Uttar Pradesh 75 47 35 27

Note: States arranged in alphabetical order; Source: NSSO (2014)

increased the share of school-education resources for girls. In India, there is a debate over the definition of OOSC, and
In six states, there is a reduction, and Rajasthan has been hence their number. Whatever the methodology, India has the
stagnant at 5.8 percent. largest number of OOSC in Asia.

However, the government is half-hearted in its

VI.c. Intervention for out-of-school policies and in providing the required infrastructure to schools
children to accommodate OOSC, especially children who

How Inclusive is School Education: An Exploration from a Budgetary Lens 45

work as labourers (Sinha, 2006). The RTE Act made it the Karnataka school-education budget does not report any of
mandatory for all children in the 6-14 years age group to attend these campaigns.
formal schools and complete eight years of education. In order
to mainstream the large number of OOSC, special training has SSA is the only scheme with some provision to
been taken up as a critical initiative under SSA to enable them mainstream OOSC. Bihar, a state with high OOSC, has spent
to enrol in age-appropriate grades in government schools. For the largest share from its SSA budget to bring back children to
example, Bihar has drawn a comprehensive plan to cover all schools, followed by Chhattisgarh (Figure 27).
OOSC by direct enrolment, through residential special training
(3, 6, 9 and 12 months), non-residential special training (3, 6 In spite of the relatively higher spending, PAB2 minutes
and 9 months), and mainstreaming migrating children within of Bihar report that against the target of 60,000 OOSC
the state through worksite centres. sanctioned in 2013-14, the state could cover only 29,000 under
special training. Of this, only 7,000 children (24 percent) were
Figure 26: Out-of-School Children at mainstreamed in age-appropriate classes and there was no
Elementary Level mechanism to track mainstreamed children.

Out-of-school children at elementary level (Percent)

While there is a small attempt to bring back OOSC at the
Bihar 27.3 elementary level, no mainstreaming policy at the state or Union
levels is seen for children in the 14-17 years age group, who are
Uttar Pradesh 23.2
either child labour or school drop-outs.
Rajasthan 21.1

Jharkhand Figure 27: Share of Expenditure to Mainstream

19.8
Out-of-School Children in SSA Budget
Madhya Pradesh 19.2
Share of expenditure to mainstream out-of-school
Odisha children in total budget (Percent)
17.6
2013-14 2014-15
Jharkhand 15.0
Bihar 10.0
Karnataka 14.4
5.2
Maharashtra 12.6
Chhattisgarh 7.7
Tamil Nadu 7.7 5.2

1.2
Note: States arranged in decreasing order of metric Jharkhand
Source: Authors' calculation based on Census 2011 1.1

0.7
In most states, special training facility for age- Karnataka
1.0
appropriate admission of OOSC was approved on the condition
1.3
that all children are enrolled in regular schools and the school Madhya Pradesh
1.0
headmaster reviews the centres at regular intervals.
0.8
Maharashtra 3.0
Most states conduct household surveys every year, as
part of SSA, to identify children who are out of school. However, 0.2
their estimates of OOSC are much lower than estimates from Odisha 0.3
sample surveys.
0.1
Rajasthan 0.03
In all 10 study states, barring MDM to NCLP School,
no other interventions from the State Plan have been made 0.6
Tamil Nadu 0.9
to mainstream OOSC. Karnataka has initiated several
campaigns1 to enroll all children in schools: for example, Baa 0.1
Marali Shaalege (come back to school), Coolyinda Shaalege Uttar Pradesh 0.03
(from labour to school), Chinnara Angala (a bridge course),
Note: States arranged in alphabetical order
Samudayadatta Shaale (school towards the community) and Source: Financial Management Portal, Audit Reports, SSA website
Baa Baale Shaalege (calling the girl child to school). However, (Link: [Link]

1.
([Link] 2.
Project Approval Board

46 How Inclusive is School Education: An Exploration from a Budgetary Lens

 How Have States Designed Their School Education Budgets?

CHAPTER VII

Governance and Stakeholders

I
n this section, an attempt has been made to examine Figure 28: Share of Expenditure on Community
whether school-education budgets contribute to Mobilisation and SMC/PRI Training in SSA Budget
strengthening community engagement with schools. The
Share of expenditure on community mobilisation and
analysis also looks at how much state governments contribute SMC/PRI training in SSA budget (Percent)
towards private actors' participation in school education.
2013-14 2014-15

Bihar 0.05
VII.a. How much Government is Spending 0.12
to Enhance Community Engagement with 1.49
Chhattisgarh
Schools? 0.22
Promoting community participation in school management
0.36
is a common intervention in the developing world. While Jharkhand
0.44
this type of programme is generally believed to be effective,
actual evidence is insufficient to inform policymakers on 0.82
Karnataka
how community participation works to improve educational 0.12
outcomes. Randomised evaluation of an education programme
0.01
in Burkina Faso was designed to build trust among community Madhya Pradesh
0.08
members and teachers, and encourage them to work together
in school management. Results show the intervention 1.84
Maharashtra
increased student enrolment, and reduced student repetition 0.86
and teacher absence. They also indicate a strong impact on
0.46
class repetition by 6th grade boys, presumably reflecting Odisha 0.55
parental priorities. This suggests that community participation
can improve educational outcomes by empowering the 0.06
community and enhancing social capital, but whether Rajasthan 0.12
idealised results can be gained depends on the perception and
0.16
knowledge of community members.
Tamil Nadu 0.36

As per RTE Act 2009, Section 21, all government, 0.13

government-aided and special category schools have to Uttar Pradesh 0.39
constitute a School Management Committee (SMC), whose
major functions are: Note: States arranged in alphabetical order
Source: Financial Management Portal, Audit Reports, SSA website
(Link: [Link]
1. Monitoring the working of the school.

2. Prepare and recommend a School Development Plan, formed an SMC. The exceptions are Karnataka and Tamil Nadu,
which should form the basis of plans and grants to be where the proportion is around 92 percent (DISE, 2015-16).
made by the appropriate government or authority. Being the vehicle of RTE, SSA has a provision for community
mobilisation and training of SMC members. Figure 28 shows
3. Monitor utilisation of grants received from that both activities constitute less than 1 percent of the SSA
appropriate government, local authority or other budget. In 2013-14, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh spent
sources. around 1.5 percent of their SSA budget to empower community
participation. However, in 2014-15, there is a drastic cut in the
In eight of 10 states, more than 98 percent schools have expenditure of both states.

Governance and Stakeholders 47

VII.b. How Much do Budgets The heterogeneity of the private sector in schooling
determines the nature of funding of these schools. Private-
Contribute Towards Non-Government
unaided schools, unless run on a philanthropic basis, are
Schools? managed and mostly funded by owners. For private-aided
The deteriorating quality of learning in government schools schools, 90-95 percent funds come from the government
is a serious issue in public provisioning for the education (De [Link]., 2000), but the management is private.
sector. This has created a bias towards private schooling, the
perception being they provide better quality of learning. While This composition of schools by management varies
the debate on efficiency of private schools over government across states. Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Madhya
schools, quality of education in public schools versus private Pradesh have less than 1 percent of private-aided schools at
schools continues, the number of private schools vis-à-vis the elementary level, whereas the figure is above 15 percent
public schools is increasing over time. for Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu (Figure 29). For all states,

Figure 29: Distribution of Schools by Management

School management (Percent)
Elementary schools Private aided Private unaided Government

Maharashtra 18.2 11.1 70.0

Tamil Nadu 14.8 20.0 65.2
Odisha
6.6 4.7 86.5
Karnataka 4.8 20.2 75.0

Uttar Pradesh 4.3 26.9 66.8

Jharkhand 2.5 2.5 87.7

Chhattisgarh 0.8 9.8 89.0

Madhya Pradesh 0.8 17.9 80.1

Bihar 0.2 92.3

2.0
Rajasthan 28.2 69.9

School management (Percent)

Secondary schools Private aided Private unaided Government

Maharashtra 65.1 27.2 7.7

Odisha 28.8 16.8 54.4

Karnataka 24.7 39.9 35.2

Uttar Pradesh 20.8 67.0 9.1

Tamil Nadu 13.6 37.5 48.9

Jharkhand 9.6 31.1 59.1

Bihar 4.9 15.7 73.1

Madhya Pradesh 2.1 44.0 53.9

Chhattisgarh 1.6 28.8 69.6

Rajasthan 49.4 50.6

Note: States arranged in decreasing order of share of private-aided schools

Source: DISE, 2013-14

48 Governance and Stakeholders

 How Have States Designed Their School Education Budgets?

the proportion of private-aided and private-unaided schools In the 10 study states, in 2015-16 (BE), the proportion of
is higher at the secondary level than at the elementary level. school-education budget going to private schools varies from
Uttar Pradesh has the maximum private schools, followed 2.1 percent (Chhattisgarh) to 49.7 percent (Uttar Pradesh).
by Maharashtra and Rajasthan. Surprisingly, there are no Barring Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Bihar,
private-aided schools in Rajasthan, at both the elementary and other states have seen a decline in the share of grants to non-
secondary levels. government schools in the school-education budget between
2012-13 and 2015-16 (BE).
The number of private-aided and private-unaided
schools determines the amount a state government provides For Rajasthan, the pattern of spending on non-
as assistance to private schools. Government provides grants government schools is uneven. In 2014-15 (RE), the state
to private-aided schools (both elementary and secondary) in spent about 20 percent of its school-education budget as
the form of teacher salaries, and overheads like expenditure on assistance to non-government schools. This may be because a
teacher training, incentives, administration and management, substantial amount was reported under grants-in-aid for salary
curriculum development, examination system, etc. and assistance to create capital assets in non-government
institutions, which was not reported in 2015-16 (BE).
Besides grants to private-aided schools, government
resources also go to private-unaided schools. The RTE Act, Although Uttar Pradesh shows the highest share of
2009, mandates that non-minority, private-unaided schools school-education budget as assistance to non-government
should reserve at least 25 percent of their seats in entry- schools, according to a report, “not a single child belonging
level grades for children from economically-weaker and to weaker or disadvantaged groups is enrolled in class I in
disadvantaged backgrounds (Section 12(1) (c)). The schools unaided primary schools in 46 districts of Uttar Pradesh.
are to be reimbursed by state governments at the rate of per Another 26 districts do not have concrete information on
student expenditure incurred in government schools or the the number of such children enrolled. Only three out of 75
school fees charged by the private school, whichever is lower districts—Firozabad, Pilibhit and Badaun—have 26, 5 and 19
(Section 12(2)). children, respectively, studying in class I in private-unaided
schools” (ToI, 21st Jan, 2014). This implies that most of the
Figure 30 shows the pattern of spending by states assistance to non-government schools in Uttar Pradesh is
on non-government schools in the last four financial years. going as aid to private elementary and secondary schools.

Figure 30: Assistance to Non-Government Schools in School-Education Budget

Assistance to non-government schools as % of school-education budget

2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16

60

49.7
50

40 37.4

30

20 17.3

10 8.0
5.5
3.9 3.1 3.8 3.9
2.1
0
Bihar Chhattisgarh Jharkhand Karnataka Madhya Maharashtra Odisha Rajasthan Tamil Nadu Uttar Pradesh
Pradesh

Note: 1. 2012-13 and 2013-14 figures: Actuals; 2014-15: Revised Estimates; 2015-16: Budget Estimates, including Supplementary Budgets 2. States arranged in alphabetical order
3. To enable easy reading of the graph, values have been given for each state for the latest year only
Source: Calculated from State Budget Documents

Governance and Stakeholders 49

 CHAPTER VIII

Concluding Remarks
and Policy Implications

I
ndia’s education system presents a mixed picture: study looked at revenue receipts of the select states for the
some milestones achieved and some problems yet to last four years. It also calculated the share of revenue receipts
be addressed. Even after 68 years of independence, the to a state’s GSDP to gauge the fiscal space of a state in
sector faces challenges pertaining to basic issues like access, comparison to the size of its economy.
enrolment and retention.
In absolute terms, there is an increase in revenue
This indicates that policy pronouncements in the sector receipts in all 10 states, but the situation varies in case of
have been unable to optimally translate government efforts relative comparison with GSDP. In 2015-16 (BE), except for
into effective outcomes on the ground. Gaps at the planning Chhattisgarh, other nine states show a fall in revenue receipts
and budgeting stage, and not just at the implementation stage, as percent of GSDP over 2014-15 (RE), even more so over
are a major reason for this. 2014-15 (BE). In Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, the decline
exceeds 2 percentage points of GSDP.
In spite of the Government of India recognising education
as a top priority, the pattern of allocation of resources to Thus, even after a greater share of devolution from the
education in general and school education in particular are far divisible pool, states’ share of revenue receipts in GSDP has
from satisfactory. State governments already account for two- not shown an increase. Hence, both the Union Government
thirds of the country’s total budgetary spending on education. and state governments need to consider policy measures to
In 2015-16, recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission increase their resource envelop by increasing their tax revenue
and restructuring of the Union Budget have placed more mobilisation.
burden of investment on states. Till date, the recommendation
of the Kothari Commission for public spending on education at Since most direct taxes are with the Union Government,
6 percent of GNP every year has not been met. there is a need to increase the central taxes-to-GDP ratio
so that it ultimately results in an increased divisible pool
Given the limited resource envelop, it is imperative and states benefit from the recent increase in the tax-
to look at how states are designing their school-education sharing formula. Hence, it is imperative states protect—
budgets, which components are facing a shortage of funds, and increase—the fiscal space for public spending on
is there any scope for reprioritisation of funds between school education. Both the Union Government and state
different components, how inclusive is growth for education, governments should increase their resource envelops by
and how inclusive is the budget in providing education to increasing the tax-GDP ratio.
marginalised children. This study has analysed all these
aspects for school education across 10 select states. In
light of the findings, the study suggests nine possible—and 2. Increase Budgetary Allocations for
immediate—policy measures that the Union Government and
Universal Public Provisioning of School
states can implement to provide quality school education that
Education
is accessible to all sections of society.
While the pattern of devolution of resources may indirectly
service national priorities for education, utilisation of funds
is the responsibility of state governments (Varghese & Tilak,
1. Enhance the Overall Fiscal Space 1991). In 2015-16 (BE), the pattern of spending at the state level
Available to States shows that more than 5 percent of GSDP is being allocated
The resources available in a state’s exchequer are an important for school education in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. The share
determinant of its spending capacity. Since expenditure on varies from 3.5 percent to 4.6 percent of GSDP in Rajasthan,
education is more in the nature of revenue expenditure, the Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Chhattisgarh.

50 Concluding Remarks and Policy Implications

 How Have States Designed Their School Education Budgets?

Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, which have a higher teacher’s training, and poor inspection and monitoring at
GSDP, spent around 2.2 percent of GSDP on school education. the school level. There are also concerns over the quality of
teacher training and skill of trainers in training institutions.
A similar pattern is observed when comparing the An analysis of the state budget shows that teacher’s training,
school-education budget with the total state budget. In 2015- and inspection and monitoring, are two components that are
16 (BE), Maharashtra tops the spending ladder, allocating 18 severely resource-starved.
percent of its total budget to school education. Weaker states
like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have also allocated Bihar is allocating the highest share to teacher’s training
more than 17 percent of their state budget to school education. in 2015-16: 1.6 percent of its school-education budget. In
other nine states, it varies from 0.2 percent to 0.6 percent.
However, between 2012-13 and 2015-16 (BE), in all 10 Although Departments of Education have acknowledged the
states, the share of school-education budget in the total low academic performance of children at the school level,
state budget has declined. Education is in the Concurrent especially in government schools, the pattern of spending on
List, which implies a shared responsibility of the Union the inspection and monitoring component shows complete
Government and state governments towards this sector. It negligence. In 2015-16 (BE), Tamil Nadu and Odisha allocated
is, therefore, critical for both levels of government to step the highest share of their school-education budget to
up public investment in school education, especially at the inspection and monitoring. At the other end, Madhya Pradesh
secondary level, to make education free to all children in the allocated 0.2 percent and Chhattisgarh nothing.
age group of 6-17 years.
Improvement in learning outcomes can be achieved
if states allocate substantial resources for infrastructure
3. Immediate Recruitment of Qualified of teacher’s training and training of trainers for teacher
education. Investment is also required to recruit an adequate
Teachers
number of school inspectors to monitor and evaluate
A common feature of the Indian education system at the performance of schools regularly. Madhya Pradesh and
current juncture is a shortage of qualified teachers. All 10 Chhattisgarh should allocate more resources for these two
states lack an adequate number of professionally-qualified components in their school-education budget.
and trained teachers. Although teacher salary constitutes
the largest share of school-education budgets, economically-
weaker states like Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh 5. Investment in Basic School
spend less than 60 percent of their school-education budget
Infrastructure
on teacher salary.
Basic infrastructure is crucial for the effective functioning of a
The share of teacher salary in the school-education school. It includes not only the availability of facilities, but also
budget is above 70 percent in Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka, the extent to which they are utilised. In spite of a significant
and around 80 percent in Rajasthan. However, this does not expansion in school infrastructure, a number of schools still
imply these states are over-spending on teacher salary. Even don’t have buildings, adequate number of classrooms, drinking
in OECD countries, on an average, governments spend 79 water, toilets, ramps, electricity, etc.
percent of their current expenditure on education personnel
at the primary, secondary and post-secondary, non-tertiary This study shows that most government schools in
levels of education. In fact, reduction in salaries and benefits, the 10 study states have failed to meet all RTE-mandated
or reducing the number of teachers and other administrative infrastructure requirements, even four years after
staff, can be counter-productive, as it will discourage good implementation of the Act. Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and
teachers from wanting to enter or remain in the profession. Maharashtra, which are already relatively better in school
There is a pressing need to address the issue of teacher education, are also the states that have met, or are close to
shortage by recruiting a cadre of qualified teachers. meeting, RTE norms for different infrastructure indicators
in all their schools. Hence, their expenditure on school
infrastructure is much lower than poor-performing states
4. Prioritise Teacher’s Education, and like Jharkhand, Odhisa, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar. Although
the share of infrastructure in the total school-education
Inspection and Monitoring in Education
budget varies from 2.5 percent to 13.5 percent across states,
Financing
a higher share is seen in most states in 2015-16 (BE) on
Access to quality education is critical. And poor quality account of trying to meet the deadline of RTE compliance of
of school education is directly related to poor quality of infrastructure.

Concluding Remarks and Policy Implications 51

 Hence, states should increase allocations to basic 8. Ensure Inclusive School Education
infrastructure like school buildings within a specified
distance, drinking water, separate toilets for boys and An inclusive approach towards education is a pre-requisite
girls, and set targets to achieve RTE-specified norms in a for holistic development of the Indian education system. In
time-bound manner. States should also financially support the last few years, almost every state has introduced several
schools by giving them space to set and implement their schemes to promote education among girls and children
infrastructure norms according to their needs. belonging to marginalised sections of the population. With the
implementation of SSA, provisions have also been made to
bring back OOSC into mainstream education.
6. Expand Outreach Efforts to Disseminate
However, policy interventions have not been reciprocated
Information on Incentives
by higher allocations. Even for the highest-spending state,
to Target Groups
Odisha, the intervention for girls comprises less than 6 percent
Studies show that goal-based incentives for students are of its school-education budget. In Karnataka, Maharashtra,
effective. Further input-based incentives (like books and Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh,
bicycles) are more effective than output-based incentives (like the expenditure on girls’ education remains less than 1 percent
grades and test scores). Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Madhya of school education for the last two years.
Pradesh and Jharkhand are spending around 10 percent or
more of their school-education budget to provide incentives States should design and implement policies for girl
to children. In Maharashtra and Karnataka, the share is below children that are aimed at achieving desired outcomes.
5 percent. Planning should be implemented through gender-responsive
budgeting, which can help improve girls’ education. All
Along with incentives, states should also spend states, and not just the current few, should release a gender
on the information, education and communication (IEC) budget statement.
component to generate awareness about entitlements and
incentives under their schemes and programmes. However, In all 10 study states, the major share of public
it is important to recognise that an incentive only offers expenditure on education for SCs and STs is made from SCSP
temporary and partial relief. A policy to provide educational and TSP. In Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh, more
incentives to children cannot substitute a poor learning than 20 percent of the school-education budget is spent on
environment in schools. marginalised children. In Chhattisgarh, which has a high share
of SC and ST population, the figure is around 50 percent.

7. Increase Allocations to Mid-Day Meal More intervention towards children from SCs, STs,
Muslims and economically-weaker sections will make the
Scheme to Cover All Children at the
education system more inclusive. In terms of financing,
Elementary Level and Extend the Scheme
among all marginalised children, persons with disabilities
to the Secondary Level
are the most vulnerable. Very few interventions have
Evidence shows that the MDM scheme is one of the most been designed for them. Financing should be made based
successful policy measures by the Union Government. Over on the physical disabilities of children, along with their
time, the scheme has expanded to all children studying learning disabilities. States should allocate funds based
in primary and upper primary classes in government and on the number of children and the categories they
government-aided schools, madrasas and maqtabs under SSA fall under.
programme, and NCLP schools.
Except for noon meals to NCLP Schools, no other
However, state-wise spending patterns show that, intervention from the state plan is observed for children
barring Karnataka, the share of MDM in the school-education working as labourers or OOSC. SSA is the only resource to
budget fell in the other nine states between 2012-13 and bring them into the mainstream. Bihar and Chhattisgarh are
2015-16 (BE). There is a need to increase allocation for MDM allocating the highest share to OOSC from their SSA budget,
in step with enrolments and raise unit costs regularly. This is around 5 percent. Other states are spending less than
missing in the present state budgets—the share of MDM is 1 percent.
not increasing over the years. It is also important that states
ensure all children at the elementary level receive hot, There is no policy, and hence spending, observed at the
cooked and nutritious meals in schools. Measures should state level for children in the age group of 13-17 years who have
also be taken to extend the scheme to the secondary level. dropped out or are working. Hence, states should design their

52 Concluding Remarks and Policy Implications

 How Have States Designed Their School Education Budgets?

policies to cater to children who drop out at the secondary training programmes and community mobilisation.
level. There should be an increase in SSA allocations for
mainstreaming OOSC. Policy measures must be seen in In conclusion, the challenges are common to states,
conjunction with the child labour law, especially with regard but their depth and scale differ. However, for each state,
to the girl child. there is an immediate need to increase allocation for school
education. States should design their school-education
budgets to allocate more funds towards teachers’ training,
9. Empower School Management inspection and monitoring, infrastructure building, and
interventions towards marginalised children, especially
Committee Members and Community
children with disabilities.
Members for Better Governance
Studies have established that schools with greater local Better implementation and better governance can be
decision-making authority and accountability deliver better achieved with effective participation of the community in
educational outcomes. SMCs set up under the RTE Act the whole education system. Along with better and efficient
have been assigned substantial powers to improve school management of material resources, it is essential to address
functioning through monitoring, community mobilisation, the issue of shortage in human resources to raise the quality of
participating in school-level planning and budgeting. There is a the education system. Overall, effective planning, participation
separate provision under SSA for SMC training and community of all stakeholders, a robust system of fund flow and utilisation
mobilisation. However, none of the states prioritise SMC processes, and constant monitoring can help bridge the gap
trainings on a regular basis, and allocate adequate funds for between allocations, spending and needs.

Concluding Remarks and Policy Implications 53

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 Annexures
Table 1: Allocation for School Education by Level (Rs crore)

Level 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2014-15 2015-16 2015-16 2015-16

(Actuals) (Actuals) (BE) (RE) (BE) (SB) (BE+SB)

Elementary education 9,781 8,636 15,369 16,138 13,327 2,205 15,782

Bihar Secondary education 1,980 2,793 4,569 4,767 4,376 678 5,249
Total school education 13,350 13,564 23,651 23,931 21,778 3,791 25,569

Elementary education 4,715 4,978 4,445 6,525 6,953 16 6,969

Chhattisgarh Secondary education 1,686 2,385 3,478 3,758 4,127 85 4,212
Total school education 7,466 7,916 8,089 10,380 11,166 100 11,266

Elementary education 3,159 2,634 6,124 4,914 5,522 246 5,767

Jharkhand Secondary education 524 656 1,140 1,058 1,245 66 1,311
Total school education 4,173 3,813 8,017 6,811 7,725 311 8,036

Elementary education 7,484 8,397 10,311 9,871 10,584 -826 9,758

Karnataka Secondary education 4,297 4,606 5,567 5,583 5,785 -632 5,153
Total school education 12,420 14,724 17,191 18,162 17,219 -1,345 15,873

Elementary education 6,498 8,755 11,814 13,441 10,682 860 11,542

Madhya Pradesh Secondary education 2,282 1,440 4,647 2,622 3,289 298 3,587
Total school education 11,442 12,370 20,580 19,601 17,783 1,618 19,401

Elementary education 16,961 19,923 19,991 21,238 23,412 301 23,714

Maharashtra Secondary education 12,845 14,489 16,322 15,951 18,187 127 18,313
Total school education 30,234 35,815 37,180 39,294 43,787 429 44,216

Elementary education 3,963 4,551 6,120 5,782 7,041 169 7,210

Odisha Secondary education 1,849 2,073 3,042 2,992 2,826 849 3,675
Total school education 7,082 7,909 10,975 10,164 11,960 1,435 13,395

Elementary education 7,557 8,465 12,684 11,750 13,615 0 13,615

Rajasthan Secondary education 4,108 5,318 8,276 7,113 8,331 0 8,331
Total school education 13,668 15,155 23,365 20,349 23,528 0 23,528

Elementary education 7,784 9,386 9,747 11,778 11,801 97 11,898

Tamil Nadu Secondary Education 7,165 8,569 9,327 9,546 10,608 193 10,801
Total school education 15,457 18,576 19,919 22,159 23,285 290 23,574

Elementary education 18,414 19,858 27,236 27,346 36,499 3,338 39,837

Uttar Pradesh Secondary education 7,737 9,199 7,918 7,212 9,015 45 9,060
Total school education 34,496 34,541 42,020 40,199 50,941 4,622 55,562

Note: Elementary and secondary education figures include expenditure made by Department of Education; figures for total school education include expenditure made by
Education Department as well as other departments on school education (Class I-XII).
Source: Detailed Demand for Grants for 2014-15 and 2015-16 for these 10 states

56 Annexures
 How Have States Designed Their School Education Budgets?

Table 2: State-wise Revenue Surplus (+)/Revenue Deficit (-) as % of GSDP

2014-15 (BE) 2014-15 (RE) 2015-16 (BE)

States showing a Revenue Surplus in 2015-16 (BE)

Uttar Pradesh 2.97 3.32 3.08

Bihar 2.65 (-) 1.18 2.63

Jharkhand 2.00 1.94 2.07

Chhattisgarh 1.17 1.13 1.85

Odisha 1.37 1.09 1.47

Madhya Pradesh 1.00 1.38 1.00

Rajasthan 0.13 (-) 0.73 0.08

States showing a Revenue Deficit in 2015-16 (BE)

Maharashtra (-) 0.31 (-) 0.82 (-) 0.20

Tamil Nadu 0.03 (-) 0.38 (-) 0.44

States arranged in decreasing order of surplus

Source: State Budgets for 2015-16

Annexures 57
About CBGA
CBGA is an independent, non-profit policy research organisation
based in New Delhi. It strives to inform public discourses through
rigorous analysis of government budgets in India; it also tries
to foster people's participation on a range of policy issues by
demystifying them. For further information about CBGA's work,
please visit [Link] or write at: info@[Link].

About CRY
CRY – Child Rights and You (formerly known as Child Relief and
You) is an Indian NGO that believes in every child’s right to a
childhood – to live, to learn, grow and play. For over 30 years,
CRY and its partners have worked with parents and communities
to ensure Lasting Change in the lives of more than 20 lakh
underprivileged children. For further information about CRY's
work, please visit [Link].