Page 33 - EW FEB 2022

Special Essay

Union Budget 2022-23:

optical illusion

GEETA KINGDON

HE FEEL-GOOD FACTOR OF THE 11.86 percent With some belt-tightening, resources
increase in the outlay for education in Union
Budget 2022-23 presented to Parliament and can be found for substantial investment
Tnation on February 1 is an optical illusion. Sure, in digital technologies and other
the allocation of Rs.104,278 crore for 2022-23 is almost
12 percent greater than the outlay of Rs.93,223 crore of interventions which would improve
2021-22. But the 2021-22 allocation was 6 percent lower children’s learning outcomes
than the budget of Rs.99,184 crore of the previous year.
Therefore compared to 2020-21, the Union government’s
provision for education is only 5 percent higher, too, special emphasis accorded to agriculture and urban
translating into an annualised growth of 2.5 percent planning and permitting world-class foreign universities
during the past two years. Nevertheless, we should be to establish campuses in Tec City, Gujarat for STEM
grateful for small mercies conferred in times of fiscal (science, technology, engineering, maths) learning are
distress. steps in the right direction. Although the education
In fiscal 2020-21, India’s GDP contracted sharply by 8 budget for 2022-23 (Centre plus states) aggregates a
percent because of the comprehensive lockdown of busi- mere 3.1 percent of GDP — only half of the long-cherished
ness, industry and commerce prompted by the Covid-19 6 percent goal — in the current straitened financial
pandemic. Government revenue plunged sharply by 21.6 circumstances of the Covid pandemic era, the allocations
percent, leaving no space for expanding public expen- are indicative of commitment to public education.
diture. Yet, by allowing the fiscal deficit to balloon, the If government did some belt-tightening and practised
annual salary increase of public sector employees was economic efficiency, additional resources can be found to
protected. increase the budget for substantial investment in educa-
Ditto in the states. In Uttar Pradesh — India’s most tion, e.g, for digital technologies and other interventions
populous state (215 million) — teachers’ salaries in- which would improve children’s learning outcomes.
creased during the past two years of the pandemic. or one thing, teachers — the most expensive resource
In July 2019, dearness allowance on basic pay was 17 Fin education — are currently deployed in a profligate
percent. In July 2021, it was raised to 31 percent, i.e, an and extravagant manner, with the national teacher-
increase of 14 percent on basic pay. This was in addition pupil ratio (TPR) averaging 1:25, whereas the RTE Act
to a 3 percent increment on basic pay per year. In sum, recommends 1:30. In a recent paper published by the
teachers’ salaries increased by 20 percent over two years, RISE programme at Oxford University, Sandip Datta
despite the sharp contraction of government revenue. In and myself demonstrated that prescribing a TPR of 1:30
other words, the rise in education expenditure is absorbed would save the public exchequer Rs.28,671 crore per
mostly by the hike in teachers remuneration. annum. Indeed there’s a case for liberalising the TPR
Coming back to the Union Budget 2022-23, of the total beyond the prescribed limit because there is no evidence-
allocation of Rs.104,278 crore for education, Rs.40,827 basis for maintaining 1:30 TPR. On the contrary, three
crore is for higher education and Rs.63,449 crore for Indian studies by Karthik Muralidharan, Abhijit Banerjee,
school education. Of the school education budget, Esther Duflo, Sandip Datta and myself that examined this
Rs.37,383 crore (nearly 60 percent) is for Samagra issue, indicate that reducing the number of students in
Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) to support state governments class doesn’t improve learning outcomes.
providing elementary and secondary education; Rs.7,650 Therfore the 1:30 TPR is not sacrosanct. The Datta
crore for Kendriya Vidyalayas and Rs.4,115 crore for and Kingdon study argues that if government maintained
Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas, schools funded by the a TPR of 1:40 (as in most private schools), it would save a
Central government; and Rs.10,234 crore is for the PM whopping Rs.77,629 crore per annum at 2019-20 prices.
Poshan (mid-day meal) scheme. The remainder Rs.4,067 This would permit serious investment in improving the
crore has been allocated to several small school education quality of K-12 education.
schemes such as government contribution to World Although the Union Budget 2022-23 attempts to ad-
Bank’s STAR program in six states; merit scholarship dress educational needs in these straitened times, it is
scheme; teacher training, etc. disappointing because it hasn’t mobilised much needed
The allocation towards improving digital infrastructure resources by removing flab and inefficiencies within the
in rural areas via the Vibrant Villages programme; focus public K-12 system.
on skilling by giving a fillip to vocational education,
and the development of e-learning materials in regional (Geeta Gandhi Kingdon is Professor, Institute of Education, Univer-
languages, are all positive initiatives. In higher education sity College London)

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