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Education sector downplayed: Gujarat ranks 14th in budget allocation

Shiksha Abhiyan: Shortage of teachers & classrooms reflect poor share in budget, says report

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Despite much talk about focus on the social sector, over the years, there has been only a nominal increase in allocation towards education in the state budget. In fact, Gujarat ranks 14th among the 18 big states of India as far as percentage share of education in the overall state budget is concerned.

Share of education in the overall state budget for 2017-18 was just 12.8%, much less that states such as Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. Both these states allocated 14.3% and 19% of their total budget for education, respectively.

An analysis carried out by Pathey, an organisation that undertakes budget research, also found that the actual share of education in the consolidated budget of the state has been constantly declining. This year (2019-20), the consolidated budget estimate for the state stands at Rs 2,04,815 crore, of which, the share of education is just 12.16%. This is lower than the earlier 14.24% allocated to education in the state's budget for 2014-15.

The percentage share of education in the state's GDP has also been on the decline. Education accounts for just 1.46% of the state's GSDP, down from 1.87% in 2014-15.

Even elementary education, which has been in focus since the implementation of RTE, has seen its share decline considerably in the consolidated budget, from 9.16% to 7.54%.

It should be noted that for 2019-20, the overall budget outlay for general education in the state is Rs 24,901 crore against which the budget outlay for elementary education is Rs 15,444 crore.

Pathey said that even after nine years of implementation of RTE, the state suffers from a shortage of teachers and classrooms, and that this is a reflection of poor allocation for education in the overall budget of the state. It added that this is while the budget has seen, on an average, an increase of 14.84% annually.

The rise in budget allocation for education stands at a mere 9.75%. The analysis also revealed that 86.79% of the total budget for elementary education was spent on salaries while a mere 0.20% of the total budget was spent on training teachers. "We need to focus more on teachers' training as education is changing at a faster rate and teachers and teaching need to change with the times," said the organisation in a press release.

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