Budget 2018-19 for the education sector: A look at the past and what?s to come

By Priyanka Venkat

It is common knowledge that a crucial way to tackle persistent inequality is to tackle unequal access to education. Building a robust education system is key to ensuring social mobility, and this requires at the very minimum an adequate allocation of resources. It is that time of the year again where we catch a glimpse of what’s to be expected this year—the announcement of the budget. While the government’s plan for the education sector for 2018-19 will be released next week, it is worthwhile to examine the budget allocations of 2017-18 for the sector.

What had the government planned for 2017-18?

The Union Budget of 2017-18 did not show a substantial increase in spending on education. It had allocated Rs. 79,685.95 crore for the education sector. There was a hike in the allocation by 9.9 per cent as compared to 2016-17, where the allocation was Rs. 72,934 crore. However, there were concerns regarding the quantum of allocations in specific avenues.  Let’s look at some of these allocations.  With respect to the allocation to the National Education Mission, there was an increase of only Rs. 1305 crores. The National Education Mission envelops all schemes that focus on improving education. This includes the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan, the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan as well as teacher training and education for adults. The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), which focuses on the universalisation of elementary education had been allocated Rs. 23,500 crores. The allocation for SSA increased by only Rs. 1000 crores as compared to that in 2016-17 of Rs. 22,500 crore.

Similarly, the mid-day meal scheme received an allocation of Rs. 10,000 crores, an increase of only Rs. 300 crores. Considering that this scheme plays a crucial role in ensuring sufficient nutrition intake by children in schools, the allocation is insufficient to tackle the issue adequately. There were a few highs in the budget announced last year. In his budget, the finance minister proposed a system to measure learning outcomes in schools. This included setting up an innovation fund to bolster innovation for secondary education.

Mr Arun Jaitley, the Finance Minister, said, “An Innovation Fund for Secondary Education will be created to encourage local innovation for ensuring universal access, gender parity and quality improvement. This will include ICT enabled learning transformation. The focus will be on the 3,479 educationally backward blocks.” Where vocational education is concerned, the government announced the setting up of 100 India International Skill centers across the country to provide training for those seeking jobs outside the country. The finance minister also announced the launching of SANKALP. An amount of Rs. 4,000 crore was set aside in the budget for the programme which is intended to provide training that is relevant to the market. He also announced that the next phase of STRIVE costing Rs. 2200 crore would be launched in 2017-18, which focuses on enhancing skills training provided in Industrial Training Institutes.

Higher education received a push in the budget

Where higher education is concerned, the allocation increased from Rs. 29,703 crore in 2016-17 to Rs. 33,330 crore in 2017-18, a 12 per cent rise year on year. The government also expressed its intention to reform the University Grants Commission. The commission is responsible for creating, coordinating and maintaining the standards for university education in India. The poor performance of the commission is well known, with delays in providing grants and fellowships, lack of regulation and discipline in maintaining standards, and basically doing a sub par job at maintaining quality while giving good universities very little room to breathe.

The finance minister announced that to deal with this, good quality institutions would be given more autonomy and will be identified through a national rankings and accreditation agency. Another important announcement made, was the setting up of a National Testing Agency. This agency is intended to be an autonomous organisation responsible for conducting all entrance exams for institutions at the higher education level. By taking over this responsibility, agencies such as AICTE and CBSE have more freedom to focus on providing quality education by taking a holistic approach towards formats for exams and assessment. The setting up of the agency received cabinet approval in November, 2017. The government also announced that the online platform SWAYAM would be launched, to expand access to quality higher education. The platform provides access to more than 350 courses, to allow students to learn from courses at top tier institutions that they may not be able to attend. SWAYAM was launched earlier this year. The budget also stated that an additional two All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) would be set up in Gujarat and Jharkhand.

Education budget missed the mark

While the budget promised great reforms, the real question is whether the allocations proposed are enough to achieve the goal of transforming the education landscape. Let’s start with the allocation made to the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan (SSA). The Right to Education Act is largely implemented through the SSA. The RTE act mandates that all children between the ages of 6 to 14 have the right to free education. The SSA therefore plays a crucial role in achieving the universalisation of education. While we may have achieved close to a 100 per cent enrollment rate at the elementary level through these reforms, another important metric that is often ignored is quality. The point of striving towards universal access to education is to ensure that every student not only receives an education, but also a high quality one.

The lack of focus on the quality of teaching in schools, coupled with a perennial shortage of funds to bring about improvement, makes the promise of a quality education look far fetched. The entire education system needs drastic restructuring. This includes efforts to strengthen incentive and accountability structures for teachers, improving the student-teacher ratio and establishing quality control systems, to name a few. The increase in allocation for the SSA of Rs 1000 crores spread across lakhs of elementary schools, therefore, seems inadequate for the mammoth task. 

The allocations miss the mark even where secondary education is concerned. The Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) had set a target of achieving universal access to secondary education by 2017 and universal retention by 2020. As per the District Information System for Education of 2015-16, the gross enrollment rate averages at 80 per cent and the drop out rate at 17 per cent.  In the 2017-18 budget, the allocation towards RMSA increased by only Rs. 130 crore. Moreover, with respect to the setting up of an innovation fund for secondary education, the budget was silent on the amount of allocation. If higher enrollment and quality in secondary education is to be achieved, then a larger outlay of funds is essential. Allocation to the school assessment programme also took a hit in the 2017-18 budget, dropping from Rs. 5 crore in 2016-17 to Rs. 67 lakh in 2017-18. This fall in allocation is especially problematic, considering that the government brands the education budget as one that will improve learning outcomes. It is difficult to understand how learning outcomes can be improved substantially through this allocation, when learning assessments are required to be done for more than 10 lakh schools holding about 25 crore students.  

There were also some important items that were left out of the budget. The New Education Policy for instance, has been long awaited. Yet, it did not receive a mention in the budget. The policy is intended to bring about large reforms in the education sector, including teacher development and changes that are abreast with modern growth in technology and science. Had this policy been rolled out in 2016, its impact would have been seen within two years. However, the first draft still hasn’t been released, and is expected in March 2018. Where higher education is concerned, while the focus on reforming the University Grants Commission as a way to improve private participation is commendable, there was no mention of how the government plans to boost the participation of foreign universities. Boosting efficiency and quality through private sector participation, entails creating a conducive environment to participation from both domestic private institutions and foreign ones as well. 

Expectations for the sector from the 2018-19 budget

Needless to say, simply increasing government expenditure on the sector isn’t the solution. The problem is multifaceted and mere increasing of expenditure without well thought out policies and implementation cannot improve learning outcomes. Regardless, the education system cannot be revamped if funds prove to be a constraint. The availability of resources to implement change is a predecessor to change itself.  The Kothari Education Commission (between 1964-1966) had recommended that expenditure on education should be about six per cent of GDP. However, education expenditure currently stands at a mere 3.8 per cent of GDP.

The allocation for school education is expected to increase by 14 per cent in 2018-19. Both the mid-day meal scheme and the RTE act is expected to get higher allocations this year. In an interview with the Mint, government officials said that the SSA would be more focused on learning outcomes this year. The National Council for Education Research and Training (NCERT) is expected to evaluate the learning outcomes of students beginning at the district level. A portion of the funds allocated to the SSA will be directed towards improving the learning outcomes in districts performing poorly in that sphere. Additional allocations may also be made towards setting up Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas (JNVs) and Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs). These schools are known for providing high quality education at lower costs. The National assessment survey is likely to see a boost in allocation as well, considering that it fell to Rs. 67 lakh crore in the 2017-18 budget.

Private schools and technology

The 2017-18 budget was largely silent on how it intends to boost private sector participation. Research shows that budget private schools in many cases, provide a higher quality education than government schools do. They have higher standards of accountability for teachers and a subsequent better quality of teaching in schools. Despite this they face a lot of restrictions under the RTE act, such as requirements that focus more on infrastructure than learning outcomes. They therefore require greater autonomy and more action needs to be taken to support such private schools rather than hinder them. The 2018-19 budget needs to address this and provide measures that will ease such restrictions.

There also needs to be a greater push in the 2018-19 budget towards technology driven education. This will help to make learning more relevant, and consequently improve chances of employability of students. Many edtech startups are working tirelessly to integrate technology into curriculums and thereby improve access and quality. Reducing taxes under GST for educational services, could provide an impetus to growth in this segment by increasing flow of capital. It is prudent, however, to be conservative in our expectations, considering the financial situation the government is in. While the allocation to the sector is likely to be higher than last year (forecasted between 11-14 per cent), it is quite possible that it may not be as high as the demand of the sector. Regardless, we will know more soon, with the release of the 2018-19 budget just around the corner. 


Featured Image Source: Flickr