Bhubaneswar: India scores high in spending on higher education. The UNESCO Institutes of statistics rank the country second among the top five big economies in the world.
As per the data released by Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, among the big-5 economies club consisting of USA, China, Germany, Japan and India, the spending on higher education in India has been second highest after US.
According to the UNESCO data, China and Japan spending on higher education has been below 1 percent of GDP
The Parliamentary panel has also brought to fore that India’s spending on higher education is third highest as compared to the G-8 nations.
HIGHER EDUCATION EXPENDITURE
The parliamentary panel led by Senior Congress RS member Digvijay Singh states that the Ministry of Education budget for the year 2025-26 stood at Rs 1.286 lakh cr, which is 2.53% of the total budgetary allocations.
The panel report further adds that higher education allocation for the FY 2025-26 has been Rs 50,077 cr, which has been over 38.9% of the Ministry of Education Budget.
The panel noted that the revised estimates for Higher education have exceeded the budget allocations over the years.
The panel, however, lamented at lower actual expenditure by the Higher Education Department.
INDIA SPEND ON HIGHER EDU
The Parliamentary panel in its report has revealed the combined expenditure on higher education by Centre and States.
As per the latest report, Analysis of Budgeted expenditure on education 2019-20 to 2021- 22, the total expenditure on higher education at Central level and State level is given below
- 2019-20 – 2,59,772 cr – 1.3% of GDP
- 2020-21 (RE) – 2,73,276cr – 1.4% of GDP
- 2021-22(BE) – 3,02,086cr – 1.3% of GDP
UNESCO RANKING LIST
As per UNESCO Institute of Statistics (UIS), the total Expenditure on Higher Education as a percentage of GDP for five largest economies of the world brings to fore that the expenditure on Higher education in India (centre + states) have been 2nd highest.
COUNTRIES | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
USA | 1.35% | 1.79% | 1.7% |
CHINA | 0.86 | 0.88 | 0.83 |
GERMANY | 1.28 | 1.39 | 1.35 |
JAPAN | 0.64 | 0.69 | 0.73 |
INDIA | 1.33 | 1.52 | 1.57 |
The above data shows India’s combined spending on higher education has been 2nd to USA only. Moreover, India and Japan are two countries who post an increase in spending on higher education.
G-8 HIGHER EDU SPENDING
The above numbers shows only UK spending on higher education has been higher than India.
INDIA AND SAARC COUNTRIES
The spending on higher education in SAARC countries has been poor. The proportion to GDP has been below 1%.
NEP AND EDU SPENDING
The Ministry of Education has informed the Parliamentary panel that the National Education Policy 2020 unequivocally endorses and envisions a substantial increase in public investment in education by both the Central Government and all State Governments to reach 6% of GDP.
As far as Ministry of Education is concerned, there has been increase in budget allocation from Rs.93,224 (2021-22) to Rs 1,12,899 crore (2023-24), which is around 21.1% increase.
The Panel stated that as per the Analysis of the budgeted Expenditure on Education (Central Ministries and all States/UTs) as percentage of GDP stands at 4.12% (for the year 2021-22).
The panel report shows that India leads the SAARC countries in education expenditure. The table is given below.
ODISHA CONTRIBUTION TO NATION’S EDU SPENDING POOR
The budget allocation for the education sector in the State in the Budget 2025-26 has been Rs 37,310 cr. The allocation has been 14% of its total expenditure.
Notwithstanding an increased allocation for education, data from ‘Analysis of State Budgets’ shows Odisha lagging behind average allocation of education by states.
The average allocation for education by states stood at 15% of total budgetary allocation as against 14% by Odisha.
