“No positive signals in this year’s budget”

Anand Sudarshan is managing director and chief executive of the Manipal Education Group — India’s premier private sector provider of professional education.

The finance minister has taken credit for raising the overall education expenditure of the Central government by 24 percent over last year. How satisfied are you with this provision?
It is commendable that the Union government has been consistently increasing allocation for education during the past few years. However, although a 24 percent increase over last year is good, the investment required for transforming the education sector is much greater.

To what extent does the Centre’s budgetary outlay of Rs.52,000 crore for education — less than 1 percent of GDP — fulfil the needs of Indian education?
The sheer magnitude of investment required to effect a sustainable transformation of the education sector dwarfs the current allocation. At the same time it should also be borne in mind that all investment should not and will not, come from government. Nor is the government best suited to allocate funds to and operate education institutions, except in a few exceptional cases. The role of the private sector is crucial in this regard. However, there is a wide chasm between the government’s pronouncements that the private sector is crucial to India’s progress, and the actual policy changes that have been made to promote easier investment in education by the private sector.

As the ASER 2010 survey indicates, learning outcomes in government primary schools are deteriorating. Is there any encour-agement for private initiatives in Indian education?
I am not that familiar with the K-12 sector, but clearly learning outcomes in government schools are in steep decline. Private institutions have been filling the void, but they are not the only answer. Government institutions have to be improved — perhaps a committed public-private partnership policy is an answer.

Overall what are the positives and negatives for Indian education in Budget 2011-12?
The only positive is the 24 percent higher outlay over last year, and a small additional outlay for the National Skills Development Corporation. But the negatives are many: no policy measures announced, no encouragement to private investment in education, infrastructure status denied to the education sector, and no additional incentives for creation of endowments for scholarships, financial aid, etc. Disappointingly there were no positive signals in this year’s budget.

How optimistic are you about the future of Indian education and about the country being able to harvest its so-called demographic dividend?
I remain confident that we will effect the kind of transformation that is needed in Indian education. However, we should not be sanguine about this and leave it to fate. Government, the private sector, industry and the public should all help to reform Indian education.