Bihar school education budget higher than national average

PATNA: Bihar's school education budget is 5.6 per cent of its gross state domestic product, which is higher than the national average of 2.7 per cent of GDP, according to a study by a leading NGO.

The national average has been stagnant since last four years (2012-13 to 2015-16), the period for which the study was conducted by Child Rights and You (CRY).

Mohua Chatterjee, Programme Head of CRY, East, told reporters here that Bihar spends 17.7 per cent of its total budget on school education but it needs to increase its overall spending keeping in mind the small size of budget compared to some bigger states, a study by an NGO said.

The study conducted in association with Centre for Budgets, Governance and Accountability (CGBA) examined in detail the overall scenario of school budget of 10 states - Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh.

Among the 10 study states, Bihar spends 17.7 per cent of its total budget in school education and is only behind Maharashtra which spends 18 per cent on it, the study said.

"Since Bihar's budget size is small compared to some bigger states, so the 17.7 per cent of allocation on school education is not sufficient amount and hence there is a need to increase overall spending to tackle the teachers' shortage, improve infrastructure, treachers' training, inspection and monitoring of schools," Chatterjee said.

The state spends only a meagre amount of Rs 9,583 per student compared to Rs 32,263 per student spent by Kendriya Vidyalayas in the country, she said quoting the study.

Bihar is lagging behind on per student spending by states like Goa (Rs 67041), Kerala (Rs 38811), Tamil Nadu (Rs 23617) and Karnataka (Rs 22856), the study said.