Public Investment for Elementary Education in Gujarat
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Draft Report Public Investment for Elementary Education in Gujarat By (Pathey Trust) Pathey Budget Center for UNICEF state office Gujarat Contributor Mahender Jethmalani Pathey Trust (Pathey Budget Center) Last Tenement, Prabha Colony, Vidyanagr High School Road Near Usmanpura under Bridge, Ahmedabad-380014 Email:[email protected], [email protected] Website: www.pathey.in For Detailed paper contact: [email protected] / [email protected] Agenda for Education The goal of Education for All has been high on the agenda of the Government of India since the adoption of the Constitution of India in 1950. It is reflected in the process of development planning, which was initiated in 1951. This goal is pursued through successive five-year plans. As a result substantial progress has been achieved. Education is one of the major components of development. This is one of the four main constituents of UNDP’s Human Development Index (HDI). Raising the educational achievement of people is an important development goal. The Indian Constitution has provisions to ensure that the State provides elementary education to all its citizens. In 2009, the Government of India amended the Constitution to make primary education a fundamental right of every child between the age group 6-14 years. This implies that the State must provide free and compulsory primary education to all the children in this age group. Before this, under the Directive Principles of State Policy of the Constitution, the government was not obliged to provide education to all the children. With elementary education becoming a fundamental right for the age group 6-14, making up around 1.07 crore of Gujarat’s population, the Right to Education (RTE) Act began being implemented in the state in 2010. While there has been considerable progress in implementing RTE, there is a huge work that needs to be accomplished. Improving indicators No doubt, the net enrolment rate in primary education has increased and the annual drop-out rate in primary education has shown a declining trend in Gujarat. The drop-out level at from standards I to V decreased from 22.30 percent in 1999-00 to 1.97 percent in 2014-15, while that of standards I to VII has also decreased from 41.48 percent in 1999-00 to 6.61 percent in 2014-15. Dropout Rate in Primary Education in select years (Gujarat) Std I to V Std I TO VII year Boys Girls Total Boys Girls Total 1999-00 23.77 20.83 22.30 42.76 39.90 41.48 2000-01 21.05 20.81 20.93 40.53 36.90 38.92 2001-02 20.46 20.53 20.50 39.16 35.28 37.22 2002-03 19.08 19.14 19.12 37.80 33.17 35.46 2003-04 17.79 17.84 17.83 36.59 31.49 33.73 2004-05 8.72 11.77 10.16 15.33 22.80 18.79 2005-06 4.53 5.79 5.13 9.97 14.02 11.82 2006-07 2.84 3.68 3.24 9.13 11.64 10.29 2009-10 2.18 2.23 2.20 8.33 8.97 8.66 2010-11 2.08 2.11 2.09 7.87 8.12 7.95 2011-12 2.05 2.08 2.07 7.35 7.82 7.56 2012-13 2.02 2.06 2.04 6.87 7.37 7.08 2013-14 1.97 2.02 2.00 6.53 7.28 6.91 2014-15 1.94 2.00 1.97 6.19 7.03 6.61 School facility indicators have improved drastically between 2005-06 and 2014-15. The state government has also putlot of efforts in improving the facilities. As per the report “Elementary Education in India: Trends 2014-15”, Gujarat has improved the Student Classroom Ratio (SCR) to 29 in 2014-15 from 38 in 2005-06,an improvement of 9 points. Similarly, the percentage of schools with boys’ and girls’ toilets is 99.9% and 98.5% respectively. Further, 99.9 Percentage schools are having drinking water facilities. The percentage of schools with ramp is 90.6% in 2014-15, with electricity 99.7%, with boundary wall 94%. Around 70.7% upper primary schools sections have computer aided learning lab. Gaps Yet, inadequacies remain. There are still 1.2 percent single classrooms , 1.7 percent single teacher schools, 2.9 percent schools need to be made accessible/approachable in all weather, 23.7 percent schools needs play grounds, 1.5 percent schools needs separate toilet facility for girls students, 25% schools need computers, 10% schools need ramp and 7% schools need boundary walls. While the budgetary expenditure for education has increased, there is scope for improvement. The state government spent Rs 4,823 crore (11.91%) for education in 2006-07out of the state’s total consolidated fund of Rs 40,488 crore. As proportion to the total budget, the expenditure increased thereafter, but marginally, except a big jump of 15.20 percent in 2010-11, the year RTE began being implemented. Figure 1: Investment for Education in Gujarat in percentage share in the total budget Investment for education Revenue Capital Combined 15.20 14.96 14.89 14.61 14.43 14.65 14.15 14.12 13.96 13.83 13.52 13.30 13.41 13.03 13.18 12.43 12.6 12.48 12.54 12.46 11.91 11.78 11.91 11.27 11.08 10.61 10.84 10.35 2.41 1.66 1.28 1.24 1.27 1.00 1.0 1.12 1.13 0.64 0.65 0.47 0.49 0.59 2006 - 07 2007 - 08 2008 - 09 2009 - 10 2010 - 11 2011 - 12 2012 - 13 2013 - 14 2014 - 15 BE 2014 - 2015 2014 - 15 - 2015 - 2016 2015 - 16 - RE 2016 - 17 - BE Acc Acc Acc Acc Acc Acc Acc Acc RE Acc BE In fact, the budgetary outlay for education in percentage terms, in fact, showed a declining trend from 14.15 percent in 2013-14 to 13.18 percent in 2016-17. The result, the state is unable to meet several of its educational requirements. For instance, it has not been able to fill up teachers’ vacancies, which stood at 12,281 in 2014-15 at the elementary level. The shortage of teachers in Ahmedabad district was 11 percent and Kuchch district it was 24.70 percent. The shortage of science and mathematics subjects teacher at upper primary level as on 31st March, 2015 was 2,413, which is huge, affecting the quality of education and also building scientific temper among children. The Kothari Commission (1986) had suggested that we should spend at least 6% of our GDP on education. However, calculations show that the share of public provisioning for education in the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) in Gujarat has remained in the range of 1.58 percent to 1.99 percent. Only in the year 2010-11, the share of education expenditure in GSDP was 2.10 percent. Gujarat State’s : % share of education expenditure in GSDP (Figure in Crore) 2010-11 2011- 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15- 2015-16- Acc 12 Acc Acc Acc Acc RE 2016-17-BE GSDP 521519 605456 712123 806745 895202 984971 1094303 General Education Budget 10964 11974 13370 14965 16961 19636 20013 Investment for education 2.10 1.98 1.88 1.85 1.89 1.99 1.83 Human resources Apart from physical infrastructural, recruitment of human resources is equally important and needs attention. Gujarat has progressed well in developing necessary infrastructure, but the improving in quality of education is a huge task. To address the shortage teachers,the government has adopted the policy of employing contractual teachers on a much lower salary than that of regular teachers. This has a demoralizing effect on contractual teachers, affecting the quality of education. Worse, many a time teachers need to engage in non-teaching activities. There is variation in quality of education and learning level across educational institutions. Presently, there are several types of institutions prevailing in the state for providing elementary education like Ashram shalas in Adivasi areas, state board, CBSE board, Kendriyavidyalaya, Navodiyayvidyalaya and International board etc. The result is, students are being not provided uniform set of opportunities. The average per capita expenditure in elementary education in Gujarat was Rs 11,534 in 2010-11, which went up toRs. 18,756 in 2014-15. However, each education providing unit had a different per capita expenditure –in 2014-15, for KendriyaVidhyalavya,it was Rs. 25898, while for NavodiyaVidyalayait was Rs. 85,000. Per Capita Expenditure for Elementary Education in Gujarat 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 No of students in Gujarat Govt 5916978 5982181 6215390 6105605 5941473 schools Expenditure for 11144 Elementary 6825 crore 7569 crore 8574 crore 9803 crore crore education per capita expenditure for 11534 12652 13795 16056 18756 Elementary level Gujarat’s per capita expenditure lags being several states. A study by the Accountability Initiative, “How Much Does India Spend per Student on Elementary Education”, showed that in year 2011-13 Gujarat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nandu spentRs. 13,377, Rs. 21,002 and Rs.15,042 respectively. As per a response to an unstarred question (No. 2420) in the Lok Sabha on 9th May, 2016, the unit cost claimed by the state governments under the RTE Act for the weaker sections for payment of fees to private unaided schools to provide education to weaker sections (25% quota under section 12(1)(c) of RTE Act)is Rs 10,000 per student in Gujarat,as against Karnataka’s Rs.