Free education depends on FC

NEW DELHI: Provisioning for Right to Free and Compulsory Education for Children Act, 2009, is becoming a challenge. With the Planning Commission indicating that finding Rs 1,74,000 crore for the Act was difficult due to economic downturn, the HRD ministry is hoping that the Finance Commission will step in to meet the breach.

The ministry has been assured of the Rs 34,000 crore that have been set aside for the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan for the remaining period of the XIth Plan. Also, there is Rs 47,000 crore the Finance Commission will provide for.
Sources said that the ministry will ask the 13th Finance Commission to provide for the amount that the states require over and above the funds already set aside for it.

The argument is that the states will be unable to provision for the higher cost of implementing the Act, especially if its share of funding goes up, as planned. The ministry may ask the Finance Commission to provide for the additional amount to the states in a fund sharing arrangement that puts a heavier burden on the Centre, such as 65:35. The government may need to reconsider the fund sharing pattern for the Act.