Page 62 - EW March 2025

Special Report

lakh crore is 17.5 percent lower than Union Budget 2025-26: Major allocations — I
the Rs.2.40 lakh crore budgeted in (Rs. crore)
2024-25, against which the revised Department of School Education & Literacy 2024-25 2024-25 2025-26
expenditure was Rs.1.88 lakh crore. (RE)*
Obviously to reduce the fiscal deficit 1. Pradhan Mantri Innovative Learning
of 2025-26, the social services outlay Programme (DHRUV) 0.01 7.5 55
has been slashed. There is a big shad- 2. National Means Cum Merit Scholarship
ow between investment in people as Scheme 377.01 360.1 429
proclaimed in the budget and putting 3. Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) 9,302.67 8,727 9,503.84
money on the table for that purpose. 4. Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti (NVS) 5,800 5,370.79 5,305.23
I NDEED AFTER EXAMINING 5. National Council of Educational 510 560.77 593.71

the static provision made in
Research and Training (NCERT)

Budget 2025-26 for educa-
tion, one wonders whether 6. Samagra Shiksha Abhiyaan
the finance minister is aware (Primary-secondary schooling) 37,010 37,010 41,250
that India grudgingly hosts the world’s 7. PM Poshan (Nutrition) 12,467.39 10,000 12,500
largest child and youth population ag- 8. PM Schools for Rising India (model schools) 6,050 4,500 7,500
gregating 560 million. Setting quality
issues aside for the moment, the scale 9. New India Literacy Programme (NILP) 160 120 160
of demand for basic infrastructure — 10. North Eastern Areas 7,029.63 6,599.16 7,497.45
classrooms, teachers, libraries, labo-
ratories, digital connectivity etc — is 11. Grant-in-aid to Union Territory Governments 2,175.86 2,020.35 2,191.61
massive. As the latest Unified Dis- Grand Total 73,008.10 67,571.20 78,572.10
trict Information System for Educa-
tion PLUS (UDISE+) 2023-24 of the Source: www.indiabudget.gov.in * Revised expenditure
Union education ministry released on
December 30 testifies, even 75 years which ruled India for
after independence there are unac- 45-50 years after inde-
ceptable shortages of laboratories, pendence and is primar-
lavatories, libraries and electricity in ily responsible for the
the country’s 1.47 million schools. neglect of Indian educa-
This deficiency combined with tion, as of the ruling BJP/
indifferent teaching, outdated syl- NDA government which
labuses, textbooks and curriculums has failed to remedy this
prompts 22 percent of enrolled chil- situation, argue that edu-
dren to drop out of primary schools, cation — especially K-12
36 percent out of secondary schools education — is mainly a
and 55 percent from higher secondary state government subject.
classes — waste of human resource of Rural government school: unacceptable infrastructure Therefore, India’s 29 state
colossal scale. governments are to blame
Moreover, even children retained India average. In some states includ- for the shambles of Indian education.
in school exhibit below par learning ing Telangana, Karnataka and Assam, But it’s pertinent to bear in mind
outcomes. For the past two decades, over 70 percent of class V rural chil- that most states were/are also ruled
year after year, the Annual Status of dren can’t read class II textbooks. by the Congress or BJP/NDA. The
Education Report which field tests Given this dismal grassroots real- blame for the poor learning outcomes
primary and adolescent school chil- ity, India’s education sector obviously of India’s children and youth has to be
dren in rural India, has been report- needs massive investment and make- laid at the doors of benighted leaders
ing very poor reading and numeracy over. Despite this, the Central govern- of these (and other) political parties.
learning outcomes. For instance, the ment’s annual allocation for educa- Indeed post-independence India’s en-
latest ASER 2024 released on Janu- tion as a percentage of GDP has been tire political class which was quick to
ary 30, says that 52 percent of rural steadily declining from 0.44 percent seize “the commanding heights of the
children in class V can’t read class II in 2023-24 to 0.37 percent in 2024-25 Indian economy”.
textbooks, and 70 percent can’t solve and 0.35 percent in 2025-26. Against this backdrop of continu-
simple division sums. That’s the all- Apologists of the Congress party, ous failure to upgrade public educa-

62 EDUCATIONWORLD MARCH 2025