In what could be a comment on the affairs of education in West Bengal, a research paper has found that as high as 40 per cent of total expenditure on education was spent on private coaching by households in the state during 2007-08.
The research based on the 64th round of National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) revealed that West Bengal was followed by Orissa, Bihar, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh in terms of proporation of education expenditure by households on private coaching.
While eastern parts of the country spent the highest share of education expenditure on private coaching for persons within the age group 5-29 years, the southern states spent the lowest. It was 28 per cent in east versus just 4 per cent in the south.
In rural areas, West Bengal households spent 45.5 per cent of the total education spend of Rs 2,52,969 lakh on private coaching, followed by Orissa that spent 27 per cent, Bihar 15 per cent, and Maharashtra, 8 per cent of the total education outlay.
The trend in urban areas is also similar with West Bengal leading the private coaching expenditure with 35.7 per cent of the total education spend, followed by 17 per cent in Bihar, 16 per cent in Maharashtra and 11 per cent in Uttar Pradesh.
Rural areas spent the major proportion of the private coaching expenditure at the initial or primary level, as against secondary or higher secondary level in case of urban areas.
In rural areas, the proportion of education expenditure on private coaching was at 75 per cent at the primary level and diminished at the middle and secondary level at 70 per cent and 60 per cent respectively. On the other hand, the urban trend was quite the reverse. Only about 40 per cent was spent on private coaching at primary level and expanded at middle and secondary level at 51 per cent and 60 per cent respectively.
The research paper, titled 'Invasion of Private Coaching in Indian Education', by T K Basu and P K De of NSSO did not observe any gender discrimination on this front.
As expected, the urban India spent almost double of what the rural India spent on total education, and the average annual expenditure on private coaching was higher in urban areas viz a viz rural areas.
The highest average annual expenditure on private coaching in urban region was seen at Rs 1,756 per person in the eastern zone. It was the lowest in the southern zone at Rs325 per person.
In the rural region, however, the annual private coaching expenditure was seen the lowest at Rs 73 for central Zone and highest again for eastern zone at Rs 398 per person.
