We saw the development in India’s Education budget, but it’s still too low compared to the needs of the sector.
It’s clear that the Indian education system needs a reboot. We are waiting for the announcement from Nirmala Sitharaman, The Finance Minister on July 5 regarding the Union Budget.
In 2018 Arun Jaitley, Former Finance Minister transferred ₹850 billion to the education fund. This year, he announced that the number would increase by 10%, resulting in ₹930 billion for schools, universities and other educational institutions.
It took several surveys to realize that the Indian government had a limit (of course) to how much they could increase the spending on the education sector.
Yes, the school education budget got ₹500 billion in 2019, but those funds were allocated from prominent institutions (Indian Institute of Technology and Indian Institute of Management). These institutions found a drop in their support.
2017-2018 saw increased funds for the education system. The amount was ₹818 billion, which accounted for about 2.7% of the total GDP of India.
The statistics show that the increase in funding the education sector of India is actual. But in comparison with other countries, it’s pretty low. China, Mauritius and other countries spend around 3.3% and 5% of their total GDP on funding education.
The results will be seen if India increases its’ education funding by 6% of its GDP in the course of the next four years. These changes are necessary to catch up with global education support and improve statistics. Currently, India has the second-lowest score in education quality among the South Asian countries.
There’s also the fact of the teacher shortage, which can be attributed to the low quality of the education, meaning that the education funding isn’t the only thing worth working on in India.
Why is India's Education Budget Still Low After The Improvement?
