For the past two days, I have been pursuing an idea as to how much money is
needed for providing “good” school education to ALL Indian students and how
rich should India and Assam be to afford it. The idea struck me that if I can
extrapolate the figures for Jaipur School’s 500 students, for the whole nation, it
may be workable. This discussion was published in the October 2005 issue of the
newsletter.
For comparison, the US spends $247 billion on its school education for only 60 million school kids. I note the following: 1. This does not include the cost of building offices for Education Departments or for their supervisory expenses, e.g., travel to schools for inspection or for providing in-service professional development such as teacher training.
2. A significant percentage of Indian students go to private fee-charging schools.
3. There is lot of corruption in development related expenses. As per Surjit Bhalla study, in Delhi, only 27 paise from every Rupee reaches the poor. So, in the development expenses, the cost would rise proportionately to cover the shortfall. Further, on an average 25% teachers are absent and only 50% of those present can be found teaching in the class. To have effective teaching, the cost of supervision would rise dramatically. It is hypothesized that most of the absent teachers indulge in bribing higher-ups to get pay without work.
4. Thus, to go from the current level of Indian education to an effective level would involve much higher additional expenses in supervision and corruption control.
For Current expenses being incurred by the Governments of India and Assam, I performed research on the Internet for relevant data. Only 3.3% of the GDP is being spent on education, including college education, at this time. Ideally, it should be 6%. India’s GDP per capita is $445. So, for 1 billion people, the total is $445 billion. India currently spends ONLY $13 billion on education. This is for all levels of education including higher education. For example, college level education involves 10 times the expense compared to primary education. Assume that India’s total higher education expenses are half of its total school expenses. Thus, for effective education at ALL levels India should be spending 66 + 33 = $99 billion dollars. It should spend $99 billion on education but India is spending only $13 billion. Further, as per the note above the figure would be higher to improve the current nd efficiency.
Therefore, India should spend $99 billion on education, which should be about 6% of its GDP. So, India’s GDP should be about $1700 billion compared to current only $445 billion. Note that all figures are in year 2004 prices.
Conclusion 1:
India need to increase its GDP four times to $1700 billion and spend atleast $99 billion
on School Education alone, at current price levels.
Calculation of Assam’s Optimal School Education Spending and Optimal State GDP
Assam’s population = 26 million. Assam’s school age population = 8 million (30% of total). Assam’s current educational spending =$100 million per annum.
This assumes Rs 400 per school kid per annum or $8 per kid per annum. Assam spent Rs 199 per primary school kid per annum in 1995-96 at 1998 prices. In other words, Assam spent $64 million per annum for Assam School education or $100 million on all of Assam’s education, including 50% more for higher education.
Expenditure for effective education per school kid = $220 per annum.
For Assam effective school expenditure = $220 * 8 million = $1.75 Billion.
Optimal total educational spending = $1.75 Billion for school education + $.9 Billion for higher education (50% of school spending).
Total optimal educational spending needed = $2.65 Billion per annum.
So, Assam needs to increase its education spending 26 times from current meager $100 million per annum to $2.65 Billion per annum.
Optimal GDP for Assam: Extrapolating
Assam’s State GDP currently = Rs 35,000 crore = $ 7 Billion.
Optimally 6% of GDP should be spent on education.
If optimal educational spending is $2.65 Billion, then it would be 6% of a State GDP of $45 Billion!!
Conclusion 2:
So Assam’s GDP should be 7 times of its current level, at current prices, to have quality education. It should be $45 Billion and NOT just $7 Billion as currently is. Its total education spending should increase 26 times to be atleast $2.65 billion, with $1.75 Billion to be spent on school education alone.The extra amount needed to improve supervision, in-service teacher training etc as pointed out earlier.
- Umesh Sharma, College Park, Maryland,
USA.
- Log in to post comments