Context: Over the year Less resource allocation is seen in the education sector. This article talked about India's unprecedented education emergency.

Level of opacity of education finance in India

• The opacity of education finance data makes it difficult to comprehend this.
• For instance, the combined Central and State government spending on education was estimated to be 2.8% of GDP in 2018-19, according to the Economic Survey of 2020-21.
• This figure had remained at the same level since 2014-15.

On the other hand, data from the Ministry of Education indicates that public spending on education had reached 4.3% of GDP in the same year, rising from 3.8% of GDP in 2011-12.

• The difference in the figures is due to the inclusion of expenditure on education by departments other than the Education Department.
• Including expenditure on education by, for example, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (on Anganwadis, scholarships, etc.), the Ministry of Science and Technology (for higher education) is of course legitimate.

However, the composition of these expenditures is not readily available.
Low allocation for education

• UNESCO’s 2030 framework for action suggests public education spending levels of between 4% and 6% of GDP and 15%-20% of public expenditure.

A recent World Bank study notes that India spent 14.1 % of its budget on education, compared to 18.5% in Vietnam and 20.6% in Indonesia, countries with similar levels of GDP.

• But since India has a higher share of population under the age of 19 years than these countries, it should actually be allocating a greater share of the budget than these countries.

Public spending on education in most States in India was below that of other middle-income countries even before the pandemic.

• Most major States spent in the range of 2.5% to 3.1% of State income on education, according to the Ministry of Education’s Analysis of Budgeted Expenditure on Education.

This compares with the 4.3% of GDP that lower-middle-income countries spent, as a group, between 2010-11 and 2018-19.

• In the 2021-22 Budget, the Central government’s allocation for the Education Department was slashed compared to the previous year, even though the size of the overall budget increased.
• Of the major States and Delhi, eight either reduced or just about maintained their budget allocation for education departments in 2021-22 compared to 2020-21.

The following methods can be adopted to increase access to education

• Increase resource allocation especially in technology;
• Back-to-school campaigns and re-enrollment drives;
• Expanded nutrition programmes to address malnutriton;
• Reorganisation of the curriculum to help children learn language and mathematics;
• Support socio-emotional development, especially in early grades;
• Teacher training and ongoing support; additional education programmes;
• Increased instructional time during vacations and weekends;
• Additional teachers and teaching aids, to cope with the transfer of students from private schools and
• Collection and analysis of data.