Education spending rising faster than on food

The cost of schooling has witnessed a five-fold increase, more than that of essential food items, in rural India between 2004 and 2013 indicating preference of villagers for private schools over the huge network of public schools created under Sarva Siksha Abhiyan.

Updated on: Oct 19, 2013, 23:55:16 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The cost of schooling has witnessed a five-fold increase, more than that of essential food items, in rural India between 2004 and 2013 indicating preference of villagers for private schools over the huge network of public schools created under Sarva Siksha Abhiyan.

The data on prices of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI) shows that average school fee in rural India in March 2004 was Rs 49. For same month in 2013, it jumped to Rs 260, meaning an increase of 530% over a ten year period.

The ministry maintains monthly price list of around 270 commodities including food items, health and education services. The data is used to commute the monthly consumer price index for the country and indicates where a majority of Indians are spending their income.

Commodity wise comparison shows that prices of social services like education and health has increased more than food items showing that even rural folks are looking for quality service, which most of the government institutions are not able to provide. Prices of food items have doubled during the period.

A report by education NGO Pratham said that private school enrolment in rural India was increasing at an annual rate of 10% and by 2020 half of the children studying in schools would be in private sectors, thereby questions the relevance of the Right To Education Act, which guarantees fee public school education to children in 6-14 age group.

Around 40% of children at primary level in Maharashtra are in private schools. Even in so-called backward states such as Bihar and Uttar Pradesh the enrolment in private is on the rise. “In the election year of 2014, about 41% of India’s primary age children will be in private schools and by 2019 elections private schools would be major education providers,” the report said, posing a question over quality of education in government run schools.

Shift to private schools also mean higher cost of education. The price of a text book and an exercise book has more than doubled since 2004. The parents also have to pay higher cost for uniforms, which are provided free of cost in most government schools.

Social service cost

2004

2013

School fee

Rs 49

Rs 260

Textbook

Rs 19

Rs 42

Doctor fee

Rs 28

Rs 64

Medicine

Rs 32

Rs 65

Bus fare

Rs 8

Rs 15

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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