Bihar's school education budget is 5.6 per cent of its gross state domestic product, which is higher than the national average of 2.7 per cent of GDP, according to a study by a leading NGO.
The national average has been stagnant since last four years (2012-13 to 2015-16), the period for which the study was conducted by Child Rights and You (CRY).
Mohua Chatterjee, Programme Head of CRY, East, told reporters here that Bihar spends 17.7 per cent of its total budget on school education but it needs to increase its overall spending keeping in mind the small size of budget compared to some bigger states, a study by an NGO said.
The study conducted in association with Centre for Budgets, Governance and Accountability (CGBA) examined in detail the overall scenario of school budget of 10 states - Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh.
Among the 10 study states, Bihar spends 17.7 per cent of its total budget in school education and is only behind Maharashtra which spends 18 per cent on it, the study said.
"Since Bihar's budget size is small compared to some bigger states, so the 17.7 per cent of allocation on school education is not sufficient amount and hence there is a need to increase overall spending to tackle the teachers' shortage, improve infrastructure, treachers' training, inspection and monitoring of schools," Chatterjee said.
The state spends only a meagre amount of Rs 9,583 per student compared to Rs 32,263 per student spent by Kendriya Vidyalayas in the country, she said quoting the study.
Bihar is lagging behind on per student spending by states like Goa (Rs 67041), Kerala (Rs 38811), Tamil Nadu (Rs 23617) and Karnataka (Rs 22856), the study said.
The study said the pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) of 1:56
(one teacher for every 56 students) was very high among the study states due to two lakh vacant posts for teachers.
It said 63 per cent of primary schools in Bihar do not meet the mandated PTR of 1:30 (one teacher for every 30 students).
It was found that Bihar spent 51.6 per cent of school education budget on teachers' salary (in 2015-16), which is the lowest among the study states, CGBA Director Subrat Das said.
This, he said, was in contrast with the popular perception that huge majority of budget allocation goes to pay salaries.
Bihar spent the highest among study states - 21.9 per cent of its budget in 2015-16 on "incentives" meant for bi-cycles, uniform and books to promote enrolment and retain students in schools but it spent the lowest amount on teachers' training and school monitoring.
Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE) infrastructure norms are not met entirely by any school in Bihar as none of the school fulfilled the criteria of having all facilities like drinking water, girls' toilets, boundary wall, playground, ramp and kitchen shed, the study said.
The state has increased its allocation to 22.6 per cent of the school education budget on marginalised children, it added.
