"Indian states' share of education spending has fallen over twelve years"
Concurrent List (Entry 25)
Constitutional list placing education under joint Union-state legislative and spending jurisdiction.
Article 21A
Fundamental right to free and compulsory education for children aged 6–14, inserted by the 86th Amendment.
Public expenditure on education in India is a shared constitutional responsibility. Schedule VII of the Constitution places education in the Concurrent List (Entry 25), meaning both the Union and state governments legislate and spend on it — though in practice, states bear the dominant burden of financing school education, while the Centre plays a larger role in higher education and centrally sponsored schemes. The Right to Education Act, 2009 (RTE Act) reinforced this dual obligation by mandating free and compulsory education for children aged 6–14, with costs shared between the Centre and states in a defined ratio.
Historically, India has aspired to spend 6% of GDP on education, a benchmark first recommended by the Kothari Commission (1964–66) and reiterated in every National Education Policy since, including the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. In practice, total public education expenditure has rarely crossed 4% of GDP, and the state-level share — which funds the bulk of government school teachers, infrastructure, and mid-day meals — has been under sustained fiscal pressure. This pressure has intensified as states face competing demands from debt servicing, populist welfare schemes, and post-pandemic revenue shortfalls.
State government expenditure on education is typically measured as a share of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP), as a share of total state expenditure, or in per-student terms. All three metrics matter for different reasons. The GSDP share captures the priority a state assigns to education relative to its economic capacity; the share of total expenditure captures fiscal prioritisation within the budget; and per-student spending captures adequacy of resources reaching learners.
A structural decline across all three metrics over a twelve-year period signals more than cyclical budget tightening — it reflects a systematic de-prioritisation of education in state fiscal planning. Several forces drive this: the expansion of revenue expenditure on salaries and pensions (which crowds out capital and programme spending), the proliferation of freebies and welfare transfers that consume a growing share of state budgets, and the fiscal consolidation pressure imposed by the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) framework and Finance Commission conditionalities. …
What is the purpose of 'Vidyanjali Yojana'?
1.To enable the famous foreign educational institutions to open their campuses in India.
2.To increase the quality of education provided in government schools by taking help from the private sector and the community.
3.To encourage voluntary monetary contributions from private individuals and organizations so as to improve the infrastructure facilities for primary and secondary schools.
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
With reference to education financing in India, consider the following statements:
1.Education is placed in the Union List of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution.
2.Article 21A guarantees the right to free and compulsory education for children aged 6–14.
3.The Kothari Commission first recommended that India spend 6% of GDP on education.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Consider the following statements about the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER):
1.ASER is published by the Government of India's Ministry of Education.
2.It measures foundational literacy and numeracy outcomes primarily through household surveys in rural India.
3.ASER findings have consistently shown a gap between school enrolment rates and actual learning outcomes.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
The Samagra Shiksha scheme was formed by merging which of the following earlier schemes?
1.Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA)
2.Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA)
3.Teacher Education (TE) scheme
4.Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY)
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
Want the full note, Prelims Facts & MCQ answers?
Create a free account — takes less than a minute.
Create free account