– Abdul Bari Masoud
New Delhi: The Union Government today admitted in Parliament that it spends a mere 0.4% of GDP. This shocking admission shows the BJP-led government has least concern about the education sector.
CPI(M) MP from Kerala V. Sivadasan asked Union Minister of Education Dharmendra Pradhan, on the budget allocation for education in Rajaya Sabha. In the answer, it was revealed that the total expenditure on education is only 0.4% of GDP.
Sivadasan asked specific queries such as the amount allocated for education to Ministry of Education in the Union Budget as a percentage of GDP, the amount allocated for education in the Union Budget and whether there are plans to raise the expenditure on education to 6% of GDP.
The minister stated in addition to the expenditure on education by Ministry of Education, the spending of other Ministries/Departments on education-related activities like training, research, and development, etc. also forms parts of the total expenditure on education. According to him, the expenditure done by other ministries in education should also be calculated as part of governmental expenditure, which according to the government makes 1.02% of GDP.
The States are collectively spending 3.1% of national GDP on education which is 75% of the total expenditure on education. The expenditure incurred by Central Government is only 25% of total government spending on education. Similarly, at State/UT level, the expenditure incurred by the D/o Education as well as spending of other Departments on education-related activities forms the total spending on education at the State/UT level.
| Year
|
Budgeted Expenditure
(In Rs. Crores) |
Actual Expenditure
(In Rs. Crores) |
Money Unspent
(In Rs. Crores) |
Budgeted Expenditure as % of GDP |
| 2021-22 | 93,224 | 80,830 | 12,394 | 0.4 |
| 2022-23 | 1,04,278 | 97,885 | 6393 | 0.4 |
| 2023-24 | 1,12,899 | 1,01,362 | 11537 | 0.4 |
In his first supplementary question, Sivadasan said CSIR fellowships are being cut down every year. CSIR-UGC NET Junior Research Fellowships are a big hope for science students preparing for research. In 2019, 4,622 fellowships were awarded. But in 2020, the number decreased to 2,247. In 2021, it was further reduced to just 927. In 2022, the number of JRFs awarded was 969.
The explanation is that the fellowships decreased during this period due to Covid. However, after Covid, the number of JRFs in 2023 is still only 2646.
The number and amount of scholarships are expected to increase every year, but things are in the opposite direction here.
So, he asked whether there are any plans to stop the cutting down of scholarships and increase the number and amount of scholarships.
The minister rescued himself, stating that the question is unrelated to the main query and hence he doesn’t have the required data.
In his second supplementary, Sivadasan said M.Tech scholarships are 12400 per month for those who qualified GATE exam in centrally-funded Technical Institutions. It was revised last on Nov 2014. It hasn’t been revised for the last 10 years.
The minister sought time to collect data regarding the same. It is also evident from the reply that from 2021-22 to 2023-24, a staggering sum of Rs.30,324 crore remained unspent.
Sivadasan said this is a cruelty that even when thousands of researchers are being denied scholarships, the government is not spending even the budgeted amount on education.
The question led to a heated discussion with members of various parties, Sanjay Singh-AAP, Tiruchi Siva-DMK, Milind Deora-SS raising questions regarding various aspects of education.
