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The IITs, IIMs, NITs, and central universities are among the few higher educational institutions which have annually received over 10 per cent of the Union government’s total expenditure on education from 2016-17 to 2020-21, with the share going up to 13.8 per cent in 2017-18, the Ministry of Education informed the Rajya Sabha Wednesday.
During the same period, the share of the states in the Centre’s total spending on education has come down, from 22.9 per cent in 2016-17 to 18.8 per cent in 2020-21, shows the answer issued in response to a question raised by Trinamool Congress MP Jawhar Sircar.
According to the information furnished by Minster of State for Education Subhas Sarkar, the Centre allotted Rs 22,529 crore to the central higher educational institutions in 2020-21, which was 10.10 per cent of Rs 223054 crore, its total funding on education. The states on the other hand received Rs 41,984 crore or 18.78 per cent of the funding.
Past allocations show that in 2016-17, the central higher educational institutions received 10.60 per cent of the total funding in education; 13.80 per cent in 2017-18; 10.36 per cent in 2018-19; 11.04 per cent in 2019-20; 10.10 per cent in 2020-21, which marked the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
On the other hand, the Centre’s funds to states and their education institutions during the corresponding period was 22.59 per cent of the total allocation in 2016-17; 23.61 per cent in 2017-18; 22.42 per cent in 2018-19 and 2019-20; 18.78 per cent in 2020-21.
“While IITs, IIMs, Central Universities, etc (a small number of institutions) receive a steady 10 per cent to 11 per cent of total Central Funding for education, all the States put together received around 22 per cent of central funds. We must keep in mind that the cash-strapped states together contributed Rs 5.4 lakh crore, Rs 6.6 lakh crore and Rs 6.96 crore in the last three years for the education sector,” Sarkar said.
