Page 69 - EducationWorld March 2023

can understand the difficulty of the fi-
nance minister to increase the alloca-
tion for education. However it is pos-
sible to improve children’s learning
outcomes in public K-12 education by
improved expenditure efficiency and
reduced wastage.
“For instance, government — espe-
cially state governments — could ad-
dress the problem of reported teacher
shortages by redeploying teachers
from schools with surplus teachers to
schools with too few, instead of inflat-
ing its wages and salaries bill by re-
cruiting more teachers. I am pleased
to note that the Uttar Pradesh govern-
ment is already availing this option.
Secondly, in thousands of govern- Seetharamu: low productivity bane Rudra Pratap: substantial increase call
ment schools the teacher pupil-ratio
is being maintained at 1:23. Several both counts,” says Bose, also author of several positives in Union Budget
research studies have indicated that a research paper Exit at the Bottom of 2023-24, Prof. Rudra Pratap, vice
pupils don’t suffer learning loss if the the Pyramid: Empirical Explorations chancellor of the mint new Plaksha
ratio is increased to 1:40. As demon- in the Context of Elementary School- University, Mohali (Punjab), pro-
strated in my co-authored paper Has ing in Delhi (2020). moted with the mission “to change the
India Spent too Much on Reducing landscape of engineering and technol-
Class Size? published by University HE BUDGET’S nomi- ogy education in India and the world”,
College, London (2021), increasing T nal outlay for education is disappointed with the nominally
the average class size in India’s gov- “without any memory of greater allocation made for education
ernment schools could save Rs.1.45 the huge Covid-19 learn- by finance minister Sitharaman.
lakh crore — a sum greater than ing loss” suffered by India’s children, “The positives in the budget are
Union Budget 2023-24 allocation especially in bottom-of-the-pyramid the 33 percent increase in capital
for education — by way of reduced households has also disillusioned Dr. expenditure which will have a great
salary expenses,” says Prof. Geeta A.S. Seetharamu, the knowledge- multiplier effect on the economy.
Kingdon, professor of education and able and widely travelled former pro- Moreover despite a General Election
international development at Univer- fessor of education at the Institute of scheduled next summer, govern-
sity College London. Social & Economic Change, Bangalore ment has resisted temptation to pres-
Dr. Sukanya Bose, Assistant (estb.1974). ent a populist budget of freebies and
Professor at the National Institute of “There seems to be no awareness higher subsidies. However, there’s
Public Finance & Policy, Delhi is less within the government at the Centre no denying that at 3 percent of GDP,
diplomatic. “The Union Budget 2023- or in the states that routine promotion national expenditure on public edu-
24 marks a further slide from the of children up the education chain cation is too meagre. The Central and
target of reaching 6 percent of GDP despite the sizeable learning loss state governments have to find ways
for the education sector, a promise they suffered during the Covid pan- and means to substantially increase
made to the nation more than half a demic lockdown will have a cumula- allocations for public education if In-
century back and recently reiterated tive spill-over impact. It will result in dia’s much proclaimed demographic
by NEP 2020. Coming on the back of low-quality graduates and ultimately dividend is not to become a liability.
the fourth longest school closure — as low productivity within the economy. Since the government is running a fis-
reported by the UN — spanning more The finance minister’s run-of-the-mill cal deficit and cannot allocate funds
than 500 days, the Union budget had budget shows no awareness of the for higher education which is becom-
responsibility to present a path to- lockdown of education institutions, ing increasingly more expensive as
wards recovery. The unprecedented especially government K-12 schools. It Indian industry moves higher up the
setbacks in children’s lives and their will exacerbate low workplace produc- value chain, it should encourage pro-
education development needed a tivity which is the bane of the Indian motion of private higher education
strong public expenditure push and economy,” says Prof. Seetharamu. institutions instead. Simultaneously
special measures. The budget fails on Likewise although he discerns it should raise tuition and other fees

MARCH 2023 EDUCATIONWORLD 71