Budget 2023: Total Allocation to Education down to 9%; Stagnates at 2.9% of GDP, says Economic Survey 2022-2023
Various stakeholders and even the National Education Policy 2020 have suggested increasing allocation for the education sector to 5-6 percent of GDP.
Expenditure on the Education sector as a part of total expenditure has come down close to 9 percent in the past three years, which used to be around 10.4 seven-eight years back. As per the Economic Survey 2022-2023 presented by the Central Government, the allocation to the education sector has stagnated at 2.9 percent for the past four years.
The Central Government today presented the Economic Survey 2022-2023, which gave a detailed outlook of the country's growth in the Financial Year 2023-24. As per the Survey, the education sector was allocated 9.1% of total expenditure in the year 2020-21, and 2021-22 and rose slightly to 9.5% in 2022-23. There is almost a one percent reduction in allocation for the education sector compared to 2015-16 when it was 10.5%.
| Year | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 |
| Total Expenditure (Centre+State) | 3760611 | 4265969 | 4515946 | 5040747 | 5410887 | 6353359 | 7453320 | 8008684 |
| Education | 391881 | 434974 | 483481 | 526481 | 579575 | 575834 | 681396 | 757138 |
However, the total expenditure for education has doubled in the past seven years (combined central and state) as it was over Rs 39,000 crore in 2015-16, and in 2022-23, which went up to around Rs 76,000 crores for education.
| As per cent of total expenditure | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 |
| Education | 10.4 | 10.2 | 10.7 | 10.4 | 10.7 | 9.1 | 9.1 | 9.5 |
Various stakeholders and even the National Education Policy 2020 have suggested increasing allocation for the education sector to 5-6 percent of GDP, but it is barely able to breach even halfway mark of 3 percent.
As per the ES 2022-23, last year centre and state together allocated 2.9 percent, which has been the trend for the past four years, before that it was 2.8%.
| As per cent of GDP | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 |
| Education | 2.8 | 2.8 | 2.8 | 2.8 | 2.9 | 2.9 | 2.9 | 2.9 |
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Abhay an alumnus of IIMC and Delhi University, has over a decade long experience of reporting on various beats of journalism. During his free time he prefers listening to music or play indoor and outdoor games.