06 Sep 2022 Funding Public Education
News: Union Minister of Education Dharmendra Pradhan said in reply to a debate in the Lok Sabha that people should let go of the idea that universities must be funded only by the government.
GS Paper 2: Issues Relating to Development and Management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.
What are current issues plaguing higher education?
- Privatization of Higher education: Most private higher education institutions are run on a self-financed basis, a euphemism for full cost-recovering institutions.
- Penetration of private tendencies into public higher education as there is thrust for resource mobilization, internal revenue generation, cross-subsidisation, resource use efficiency, cost reduction, accelerated cost recovery and enhanced user charges.
- The idea that higher education could be funded fully by the students or their parents out of their savings or through bank borrowings appears grossly misplaced in the Indian context .
- Substantial increase in fees and other charges from students would deprive vast sections of population from accessing higher education.
- Apprehension that people be able to afford full-cost recovery from their higher education institutions as social and economic elites, have already crossed a gross enrolment ratio of 100%, the future growth in higher education would come from the socio-economically disadvantaged groups.
What is the government expenditure on Education?
Kothari Commission, which was the precursor to the 1968 policy, higher education should have been getting at least 2% of GDP. But government Expenditure on Education is not encouraging
- Expenditure on higher education by the Centre and the States taken together nosedived from 0.86% of GDP in 2010-11 to a measly 0.52% in 2019-20 (Budge Estimates, or BE).
- Centre’s expenditure on higher education dropped from 0.33% of GDP in 2010-11 to a mere 0.16% in 2019-20 (BE).
- Despite the rise in revenue receipt , the Union government’s expenditure on higher education as a percentage of revenue receipt saw a decline from 2.60% in 2011-12 to 1.85% in 2022-23 (BE).
- As a percentage of the total receipt, the allocation for higher education fell from 1.49% to 1.04% during the corresponding period.
What National Education Policy,2020 said about funding of higher education?
Vision of National Education Policy:
- The NEP 2020 envisaged that it would “promote increased access, equity, and inclusion through a range of measures, including greater opportunities for outstanding public education.”
- It also provided an assurance that the autonomy of public institutions would be backed by adequate public funding.
- NEP, 2020 endorsed a substantial increase in public investment by the Central and State governments to reach 6% of GDP at the earliest.
- NEP 2020 said this level of public funding was “extremely critical for achieving the high-quality and equitable public education system that is truly needed for India’s future economic, social, cultural, intellectual progress and growth.”
- The NEP 2020 envisages enrolment in higher education to be nearly double by 2035.
Sources:-The Hindu
Source Link:-
- The Hindu:-https://bit.ly/3RSg59e ; Author Name: Furqan Qamar
No Comments