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Allocation for school education up 40%, far below RTE target by Sreelatha Menon
The Plan allocation for school education, especially for Right to Education (RTE), has seen a 40 per cent increase over last year. But the actual allocation is only a third of what should have gone for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan under the funds committed under the RTE Act.

The RTE commitment of Rs 2.33 lakh crore to implement the Right to Edcuation was approved by the Planning Commission, by the ministry and the Cabinet. The amount was to be rolled out over a period of five years starting 2010. That would have meant an allocation of Rs 46,000 crore for each of the five years.

However the Finance Minister allocated Rs 15,000 crore in the first year of RTE, raising expectations that at least in the second year the shortcoming would be made up. However in the second year, it has gone up by only Rs 6,000 crore and the reference point of Rs 46,000 crore or the total amount committed by the Cabinet of Rs 2.33 lakh crore is not being mentioned.

GOVT EXPENSES

Fund allocation and expenditure till Sept 2010

             Allocation    Expenditure
West Bengal    1,669            1,430
Uttarakhand    175            144
Uttar Pradesh    2,162            2,068
Tamil Nadu    652          475
Rajasthan    1,650            1,350
Orissa            791            644
J&K            73             90
Total for
all states     16,122    12,135

*Figures in Rs crore

Education experts said the indifference to the urgency of fulfilling the commitments made under a legislation are as good as a violation of the fundamental right to education.

Under the new norms being readied by the Ministry for Human Resource and Development to improve quality of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the expenses are expected to increase further — funds for more neighbourhood schools, for recruitment of 1.5 million additional teachers to reach the target of six million teachers under RTE and building residential schools where necessary.

Last year the Rs 15,000 crore allocated went towards constructing schools and recruitment of 1.3 million school teachers. While government schools continue to fulfil educational needs of 80 per cent of school-going children in the country, the fund squeeze on the crucial sector for improving education from class one to eight could delay the process for quality for majority of students.

Vimla Ramachandran, an educationist, said the fund squeeze was a response to poor spending by the states. They have been unable to spend the funds and hence the low allocations, she said.

However, the Ministry of Human Resources and Development report does not indicate large gaps in expenditure and allocation. In fact, the ministry said there was 80 per cent expenditure of funds allocated till March 2010 and the same trend was seen in the following months till September.

If numbers are to be believed, the states seem to be meeting the criterion to implement the Right to Education Act. For instance, the target for Uttar Pradesh for construction projects was 3,12,000 and the state was short only by 3,000 projects in March last year.