India increases its education budget by 20%

Now that schools, closed for most of the last two years due to the covid-19 pandemic, are preparing to reopen in India, the Government of that country has increased the budget of the decisive educational program Samagra Shikhsha up to 373,830 million rupees (4,380 million euros) in 2022-2023, 20% more than the 310,500 million (3,630 million euros) of 2021-2022.

The money will be key to helping children go back to school, training teachers and giving them support, since most of the remaining sources of economic resources of the States are dedicated to paying salaries and administrative expenses.

Meanwhile, the global budget has increased by an average of 15.6% in 2022-2023 compared to 2021-2022.

As a result of covid-19 and the closure of schools in response to the pandemic, schools are facing different problems, including learning loss, the need to ensure compliance with virus safety regulations with the reopening of the centers, the adaptation to the mixed teaching model that combines face-to-face and telematic classes, and the digital divide between families.

To overcome these challenges, financing will be decisive.

Samagra Shiksha, India's largest apprenticeship-focused Central Government Sponsored Scheme (CSS), could help states solve some of these problems.

However, since it was launched in 2018-2019, the budgets approved for its implementation have been much lower than what was requested by the Department of School Education and Literacy or by the ministerial committees.

Despite the budget increase for 2022-2023, the central funds allocated to Samagra Shiksha are 64.5% less than what was requested by the Ministry of Education last year 2021-2022.

The amount you have ordered for 2022-2023 is not yet known.

Additionally, over the past two years, the total program budget—plus state fees—has been reduced in many states.

"The mandatory closures due to covid-19 have been a huge setback for children in India," said Manisha Priyam, a professor at the National Institute of Educational Planning.

“To compensate for learning loss, it is important to increase central spending on back-to-school programmes, with a focus on language and math learning and teacher training, through initiatives such as Samagra Shiksha.”

Funds for quality education

Regarding the public financing of school education in India, although a large part of the money comes from the budgets of each State of the Union, the majority is used to pay for fixed obligations such as salaries and administrative expenses.

For this reason, the programs sponsored by the central government provide the States with the possibility of giving priority to other issues, such as the quality of teaching and the implementation of the national objectives established in the National Regulation of Education.

The largest share of core apprenticeship-related programs in India is Samagra Shiksha, with 50-90% in all states.

But not all territorial demarcations depend on them to the same extent.

For example, while Himachal Pradesh and Maharashtra are relatively little dependent, in 2017-2018 Bihar and Rajasthan financed more than half of their economic needs with them.

There are two crucial components of Samagra Shiksha: the “quality-related interventions” and the “rights established by the Right to Education Act (RTE rights)”.

Within the framework of the first, it is planned to finance the continuous training of teachers;

guarantee the application of security protocols related to covid-19 in classes;

information technology and digital initiatives;

academic reinforcement by district administrative block officers and corresponding school clusters; and compound grants, which are an annual grant of which at least 10% has to be used for water, sanitation and hygiene.

Through the RTE rights it is possible to allocate funds to the distribution of textbooks and uniforms, the reimbursement to private centers of the 25% of places reserved for children from disadvantaged social sectors, the mobilization of the community and special training for out-of-school minors.

After teachers' salaries, these two components are a priority in the Samagra Shiksha program.

In 2021-2022, quality-related interventions received 24% of the budget, and RTE entitlements 16%.

Facing the challenges of covid-19

One of the main concerns of parents when sending their children to school is safety.

According to the Home Office guidelines for the reopening of schools, school administrations have to frequently clean the infrastructure and provide working taps and hand-washing facilities, as well as separate toilets for girls and boys.

In addition, schools are expected to distribute masks, have thermometers and regularly check the health of students.

For the 2021-2022 academic year, funds were also allocated to online teacher orientation programs on school safety, to encourage teachers to act as counselors by giving students basic information about covid-19, and to train them for digital or telematic teaching. .

Likewise, all states have received funding from Samagra Shiksha for protection and safety measures for students at school, at a rate of 2,000 rupees (about 23 euros) per center.

Many have dedicated the grant to cleaning physical infrastructure, maintaining toilets, handing out masks, or purchasing infrared thermometers.

With the economic resources of Samagra Shiksha, the centers prepare and distribute study material such as worksheets, notebooks and activity-based teaching material for Preschool and Primary.

According to the Government report for the 2021 financial year, in Primary schools they have resorted to reinforcement classes.

These programs were funded in part through initiatives under the quality interventions – pre-school support, basic literacy and numeracy, and learning enhancement programs – all within the Samagra Shiksha programme.

Teachers need more training for mixed teaching, as well as to attend to the socio-emotional needs of children when they return to the classroom and to fill learning gaps.

Their continuing education is funded predominantly as part of Samagra Shiksha's quality-related interventions and earmarks.

The funds can also be used to strengthen the State Councils for Research and Teacher Training, the District Institutes for Education and Training, and the Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing (DIKSHA) platform.

In addition, the training of teachers for the incorporation of new pedagogies contemplated in the National Initiative for the Holistic Advancement of Teachers and Directors of Educational Institutions (NISHTA, for its acronym in English) is also financed through Samagra Shiksha.

Samagra Shiksha Priorities in Different States

The priority given to interventions related to the reopening of schools differs greatly from state to state.

For example, in 2021-2022 some of the richest states, such as Himachal Pradesh (41%) and Maharashtra (39%) devoted a relatively larger portion of their budget for the Samagra Shiksha program to quality-related interventions.

In contrast, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, with 23% and 15% respectively, assigned much lower percentages.

In August 2021, the Government approved extending the Samagra Shiksha program for five more years from 2021-2022.

However, the 300,000 million rupees (3,500 million euros) that were allocated to it in 2021-2022 cover only 52% of the forecasts of the Ministry of Education.

This financing restriction was also reflected in the reduction of the funds approved by the Government of the Union for most of the States in 2022 compared to 2020.

The lack of adequate funding remains a structural problem, and in most schools, funding for 2021-2022 had been depleted by December 2021, as evidenced by discussions with teachers and frontline officials of Bihar, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh.

Given the nature of the problems children in India face, such as learning disabilities and inequality, the education sector needs long-term planning and sustained public funding.

Therefore, the increase in the budget for the Simagra Shiksha program, as well as the budget as a whole, should continue in the coming years, especially considering that, as the analyzes show, it is still below the ministry's forecasts.

In addition, given that in most of the States of the Union a large part of the financing of public education comes from the budgets of the central State, this increase in funds must be complemented with higher allocations from the States themselves in the coming months. , and with appropriate interventions prioritized by territory-specific Samagra Shiksha program plans for 2022-2023.

“The pandemic and the closure of study centers as a result of the health crisis have greatly affected the mental well-being of students.

The role of teachers is no longer limited to that of trainers, but they are expected to play the role of mentors and advisers,” says Protiva Kundu, head of the social sector at the New York-based Center for Government and Budget Responsibility. Delhi.

“This requires adequate training, and therefore, the allocation to the States of a higher allocation for teacher education in the coming months should be approved.”

Mridusmita Bordoloi

is an associate member of the Policy Research Center Accountability Initiative.

This report was originally published in English in the India Spend newspaper.

As a result of covid-19 and iosioi