In the Union Budget 2011-12 presented to Parliament and the nation on February 28, finance minister and Congress party veteran Pranab Mukherjee decreed an allocation of Rs.52,057 crore (0.58 percent of GDP projected at Rs.8980,860 crore in fiscal 2011-12) as the Central government’s contribution to primary, secondary, vocational and higher education of the country’s 550 million children and youth below 24 years of age. The Central government’s allocation for education is expected to be supplemented by an aggregate sum of Rs.307,178 crore contributed by the country’s 28 state governments and seven Union territories.
The total national contribution for public (i.e government and aided education insti-tutions) countrywide is expected to aggregate Rs.359,235 crore this year (4 percent of GDP at current prices). In 1966 the high-powered Kothari Commission had recommended 6 percent of GDP as the norm of government (Centre plus states) expenditure for public education. The Central government’s major allocations for education in Budget 2011-12 are:
(in Rs. crore)
SSA/RTE: 21,000
Mid-day meal scheme: 10,380
Secondary education: 2,424
Technical education: 5,660
University Grants Commission: 5,254
National ICT mission: 943
Aligarh Muslim U (new campuses): 100
Kerala Vet & Animal Sciences University: 100
Mahatma Gandhi Hindi University, Wardha: 20
IIT-Kharagpur: 200
Rajiv Gandhi Institute, Sriperumbudur: 20
IIM-Calcutta: 20
Maulana Azad Education Foundation, Delhi: 200
Centre for Development Economics: 10
Delhi School of Economics: 10
Madras School of Economics: 10
Miscellaneous: 5,706
Total education outlay: 52,057