Financing elementary school education in India

There have been significant changes in the quantum of financing the elementary education sector in India. Traditionally, financing elementary education was the primary responsibility of individual state governments. Further introduction of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan in 2001 has resulted in a significant increase in Government of India's funding for elementary education. However, till date, the recommendation of the Kothari Commission for public spending on education at 6 per cent of gross national product every year has not been met. Given the limited resource endowments, it is crucial to look at how states are designing their school-education budgets, which components are facing a shortage of funds, how inclusive is growth for education and how inclusive is the budget in providing education to weaker children. On the other hand private expenditure on elementary education has also increased tremendously. A percentage of 24 children in rural India attend paid tuitions. However, despite the major share of private education expenditure, there is no comparative picture of public and private educational expenditure in India as well as in Indian states. The current paper attempts to fill this gap. The paper will provide the estimates of total public expenditure and total private expenditure, and hence total expenditure on elementary education in Indian states. It will provide estimates of per student public expenditure on those who are enrolled in government schools from various state budget documents and per student private expenditure on those who are enrolled in both government and private schools for major states in India from 71st National Sample Survey Organisation round.