Arjun Singh seeks big jump in school funds

The human resources development ministry has sought the views of the Planning Commission on how much more money can be provided for free and compulsory education of children in the 6-14 age group.

By one estimate, the financial implication of implementing such a move, even assuming a lowest cost scenario for the six-year period from 2006 to 2012, works out to Rs 3,21,100 crore.

The ministry wants the government to meet its National Common Minimum Programme commitment, and raise spending on education and elementary education to 6 per cent of the GDP.

HRD Minister Arjun Singh has written a letter to this effect to Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, seeking his "urgent advice on the matter."

Singh said the central government needed to take a call on what additional financial outlay it could "reasonably expect" to provide for elementary education by 2012, as well as the cost-sharing pattern between the Centre and states.

The HRD ministry wants a 75:25 (centre-state) sharing formula for all states, barring the special category ones like Manipur, J&K, HP and Mizoram, for which it wants the Centre to shoulder 90 per cent of the burden.

Referring to the national policies on education adopted in 1968 and 1986, Singh said: "While this nearly four-decade-old commitment now needs to be fulfilled at the earliest, there is no doubt in my mind that to make the Fundamental Right to Education of 6-14 year-old children a reality, outlay on elementary education needs to be raised from the current 2 per cent to at least 3 per cent of GDP forthwith."

The total current expenditure of the central and state governments on education and elementary education is around 4 per cent and 2 per cent of the GDP, respectively.

The central Plan outlay for elementary education amounted to Rs 12,242 crore in BE 2005-06, with the imposition of a 2-per-cent education cess last year.

"If the central government were to shoulder even 75 per cent of the additional cost arising out of a least-cost scenario, it would be over Rs 33,000 crore of the proposed Rs 44,000 crore (for the year 2006-07) of the Central Plan Outlay for Elementary Education," the letter added.

The Constitution (86th Amendment) Act, 2002, which is yet to be brought into force, sought to make free and compulsory education of children in the 6-14 age group a fundamental right, by inserting Article 21A to that effect.

A committee of the Central Advisory Board of Education was set in September 2004 under Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal to draft the Article 21A legislation.

The committee submitted its report last month. The report recommended the essential provisions of the proposed Right to Education Bill, and its financial implications, as estimated by the National Institute of Education Planning and Administration.