Youth protests: How Indian states’ expenditure on education has declined over 12 years

Education falls under the Concurrent list in the Seventh Schedule of the Indian Constitution.

The schedule essentially divides powers and responsibilities between the Union government and the state governments through three lists — Union, State and Concurrent. Both the Centre and state governments can legislate on subjects under the Concurrent list.

So, how do states act on the subject of education and what policy significance do they attach to it? A broad marker of priority is to examine the share of a state’s total expenditure on education. The table and chart alongside provide a glimpse of where things stand.

Share of states’ spending in education over time.

Apart from providing an average for all states and Union Territories, the table also looks at a selection of states to provide a geographically and politically diverse sample for the country.

To provide some context about the status of education in the respective states, while many variables could be chosen, the table shows data on gross enrolment ratio (GER) at the secondary education level (that is, Classes 9 to 12). The GER is the total number of students enrolled in a specific level of education — regardless of their age — divided by the total population of the official age group for that level, multiplied by 100. A look at the GER in the second column confirms the long-held notions of which states are better educated and which are laggards.

For instance, Bihar’s GER is 45 while that of Kerala is 94. A low GER also reveals the distance any state has to cover to achieve a better level of education in the state. This is especially relevant when one considers the population difference in states such as Bihar and Kerala. In essence, it gives a sense of the need for the state government to spend on education.

The first column in the table shows the data for the concerned state’s expenditure on education as a percentage of total expenditure. As against the average for all states and UTs, Bihar and Delhi stand out.

To be sure, both these states were spending even higher than this in the years preceding 2025-26. In the same period, states such as Kerala and Tamil Nadu have shares below the national average. Looking at longer-term data — going back all the way to 2008-09 — shows that Tamil Nadu has largely tracked and then fallen just behind the national level. Kerala used to allocate a higher share than the national average until the Covid year of 2020, and has lagged since then. Gujarat, too, has lagged behind the national average more often than not.

What is concerning is that the national average of all states and UTs itself has been trending down, as the chart alongside shows. After staying at around 17% in 2013-14, the average share of expenditure on education has gradually fallen since then. This fall is crucial, since it mirrors the fall in the share of money spent by the Union government as well.

There are exceptions to this trend, though. Take the UT of Delhi under the Aam Aadmi Party, which initially made health and education the key pillars of its pitch to voters. Between 2014-15 and 2024-25, when the AAP was ruling Delhi and deciding its Budget priorities, education’s share went up sharply, in contrast to the falling trend of the national average.