Budget 2017: Spend on education sector seen falling short
Experts feel the Budget spend on education is woefully inadequate for a country which is aspiring to create a pool of skilled workforce to fuel economic growth. Budget 2017-18 was billed as ‘no-nonsense’ by many, but its impact on the education sector is not yet clear. The government has allocated roughly Rs 80,000 crore for the sector, about 10 percent higher than last year. While the number may seem huge, one has to view it in proportion to the total expenditure. Compared to peers, India spends the least on education. Experts feel this is woefully inadequate for a country which is aspiring to create a pool of skilled workforce to fuel economic growth.The mid-day meals scheme, which continues to face problems and much criticism since inception, will get only Rs 300 crore more. Rohin Kapoor, Director, Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP says, “There has been shortage of funds, lack of quality control in schools and instances of vendors providing poor quality, sub-standard meals to kids. So, the entire implementation of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan has not come to fruition as per the desired objectives of the government and the SSA allocation that has been increased by Rs 1,000 crore is clearly not enough to tackle these challenges
” As per the Right to Education (RTE) forum only 8 percent schools have been made RTE compliant since the act came 6 years back. How India stacks vs global averages Amongst the BRICS nations, despite a significant growth in gross domestic product (GDP) over the years, the share of GDP devoted to education remains low for China and India. India has decreased its spending on education from 4.4 percent of GDP in 1999 to around 3.71 percent as per this year's budget estimate, undermining the work done in getting more children into school, and its prospects for improving its poor quality of education. The Kothari Education Commission had recommended an allocation of 6 percent of GDP on education, which has never been achieved. “Most of the developed world, having a more mature education system then India and higher levels of GDP are even today spending around 4.5 to 6 of GDP on education sector, realizing the benefit the education sector has on society, but in India, despite the massive demand-supply gap in the quality of education, still has not been able to reach those levels,”
As per the BRICS Joint Statistical Publication for 2015, India had spent the least amongst the peer nations on education. On a global platform, Legatum Prosperity Index for 2016 has ranked India 102 out of 149 countries that have been assessed in the study. It is way behind compared to other developing countries like Indonesia (72), Sri Lanka (58), Thailand (59) and more. But there's hope The Union Budget did have some promising reforms and initiatives that will benefit the education space in India.
Read more for HNI Stock Tips- http://bit.ly/ace_services
Experts feel the Budget spend on education is woefully inadequate for a country which is aspiring to create a pool of skilled workforce to fuel economic growth. Budget 2017-18 was billed as ‘no-nonsense’ by many, but its impact on the education sector is not yet clear. The government has allocated roughly Rs 80,000 crore for the sector, about 10 percent higher than last year. While the number may seem huge, one has to view it in proportion to the total expenditure. Compared to peers, India spends the least on education. Experts feel this is woefully inadequate for a country which is aspiring to create a pool of skilled workforce to fuel economic growth.The mid-day meals scheme, which continues to face problems and much criticism since inception, will get only Rs 300 crore more. Rohin Kapoor, Director, Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP says, “There has been shortage of funds, lack of quality control in schools and instances of vendors providing poor quality, sub-standard meals to kids. So, the entire implementation of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan has not come to fruition as per the desired objectives of the government and the SSA allocation that has been increased by Rs 1,000 crore is clearly not enough to tackle these challenges
” As per the Right to Education (RTE) forum only 8 percent schools have been made RTE compliant since the act came 6 years back. How India stacks vs global averages Amongst the BRICS nations, despite a significant growth in gross domestic product (GDP) over the years, the share of GDP devoted to education remains low for China and India. India has decreased its spending on education from 4.4 percent of GDP in 1999 to around 3.71 percent as per this year's budget estimate, undermining the work done in getting more children into school, and its prospects for improving its poor quality of education. The Kothari Education Commission had recommended an allocation of 6 percent of GDP on education, which has never been achieved. “Most of the developed world, having a more mature education system then India and higher levels of GDP are even today spending around 4.5 to 6 of GDP on education sector, realizing the benefit the education sector has on society, but in India, despite the massive demand-supply gap in the quality of education, still has not been able to reach those levels,”
As per the BRICS Joint Statistical Publication for 2015, India had spent the least amongst the peer nations on education. On a global platform, Legatum Prosperity Index for 2016 has ranked India 102 out of 149 countries that have been assessed in the study. It is way behind compared to other developing countries like Indonesia (72), Sri Lanka (58), Thailand (59) and more. But there's hope The Union Budget did have some promising reforms and initiatives that will benefit the education space in India.
Read more for HNI Stock Tips- http://bit.ly/ace_services
No comments:
Post a Comment