A total of 12 Indian states reduced their spending on the education sector in 2021-22, compared to budgetary allocation in the previous financial year. These states include Gujarat, Telangana, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, and Madhya Pradesh, as per a policy tracker by the National Coalition on the Education Emergency (NCEE).
The states have either spent a similar or lower proportion of the total budget on education as last financial year even as the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in worsening inequality in education and poor learning outcomes due to shifting to online classes.
Also read| Classes with News18 Decodes Union Budget: What is Country’s Budget? How is it Prepared?
The budget cuts ranged up to more than 15 per cent in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Kerala. Additionally, 19 states were set to have spent less than the budget estimate for 2021-22, found a policy tracker released by the National Coalition on the Education Emergency (NCEE), a group of individuals and organisations across the country which have come together to ‘resume and renew’ school education. The tracker analysed the 2021-22 budget estimates and revised estimates for 2020-21 compared to the budget estimate of a total of 21 states in 2020-21.
The findings show that during the first pandemic year (2020-21), 14 states had reduced their education expenditure proportion in the total budget even as eight of these states increased their total expenditure.
The only state to register an increase in the budgetary allocation for education in 2021-22 was Assam.
During the second pandemic year 2021-22, 12 of these 21 states reduced the percentage of their allocation to education compared to revised estimates for 2020-21. This even as all of these states increased their total estimated expenditure.
Read| From Schooling via TV, Digital University to Govt’s Skilling Portal: Key Announcement for Education Sector in Budget 2022
In the same period, two states, Assam and Tamil Nadu budgeted less than the estimated spending (or revised estimate) for 2020-21. Since the revised estimates were themselves lower than the last year’s budget prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the effective allocation was further lowered, indicating a reduced emphasis on the education sector in terms of spending. A large proportion of the education spending comes from the state’s own budget and a majority of it is spent on fixed, committed liabilities such as salaries and administrative expenses.
Read all the Latest Education News here
Comments
0 comment