Government Expenditure on Elementary and Secondary Education in Dehi from 1993-94 to 2003-04

Abstract

Government schools in Delhi are not providing quality education to the masses since many years, and this phenomenon has not escaped the eyes of experts, activists, and policy makers. However, there seems to be a general perception that the main, and sometimes even the sole, source of this problem are the low levels of government expenditure of education. And to prove their case supports of this view cite educational expenditure to GDP ratios in India in comparison with that of some other nations. Though there may be reasonable arguments to increase the level of government expenditure on education, such hijacking of public debate to focus on 'the level of expenditure' often overlooks more important issues. Contrary to common perception the level of per student expenditure on government schools in Delhi is reasonable, ranging from Rs.6000 to Rs.12000 p.a. There are a number of organisational deficiencies which do not create checks and balances for appropriate utilization of fund. Moreover, the division of these funds among social groups and for different purposes is also questionable. Though, female literacy lags significantly behind male literacy, about 15% points, extra resources provided for female education are insignificant. And in some schemes such as the one run for 'street children' and 'child labourers' large amounts are budgeted year after year without a single Rupee being spent. Also government schools catering to richer regions of Delhi seem to be spending more per child as compared to the poorer counterparts. The paper also proposes an education voucher model, which may have the potential to address some of the issues raised in the paper. Trends in expenditure under some schemes have been studied in relation to the purpose of expenditure. The issue of government expenditure on education is a complex one, and public space should be utilized to discuss them as they are, rather than reducing discussion to dogmatic wars aimed at increasing the levels of expenditure. Though, one may agree or disagree with the methods and findings of the author, hopefully the paper highlight the complexity of the issue at hand, and the need to understand the institutional deficiencies and allocative inefficiencies in government expenditure on education.