Eleventh approach to the same plan?

Admitting that current programmes of education and health care have failed is a step in the right direction

The approach paper to the Eleventh Plan, which will be finalised and sent to the prime minister by August 15, outlines the framework for growth in various sectors over the next five years. It sets a target of 8.5 per cent for GDP growth. It talks of growth in agriculture going up from less than 2 per cent to an an unrealistic high of 4 per cent over the five years of the Plan. It sets targets for savings and investment and government spending which would throw the FRBM8217;s fiscal deficit targets off-track. It fails to show how schemes that have not removed poverty or created employment or reduced regional inequality in past Plans would succeed this time. It fails to show why panchayati raj institutions would do any better than they did under the Tenth Plan.

The paper titled 8216;Towards faster and more inclusive growth8217; lacks a clear blueprint of how the government would create a conducive environment for private investment, how growth would become faster or more inclusive. Yet, what the paper does do, perhaps for the first time, is to admit to the government8217;s complete failure in delivering reasonable quality education and health care. Admitting that current programmes have failed is a step in the right direction, even if all the answers are not in evidence. Tentatively, though, some solutions have been proposed.

What is the best we can hope for? That even if the Planning Commission only pilots new proposals like health and education vouchers, the least it must do is not to spend another rupee on current programmes. Since this is almost the only innovation in the approach paper, if it cannot make its mark even on this, the criticism that the approach paper is merely the eleventh approach to the same plan, will not be far from true.

In the context of primary education, the paper cites the recent Pratham study, which finds that 38 per cent of children who have completed four years of schooling cannot read even short sentences. Also, 55 per cent of such children cannot divide a three-digit number by a one-digit number. It admits that these are indicators of how bad things might be in the learning of other subjects.

What is new about the approach to primary education in the Eleventh Plan is that, unlike in the past when poor performance implied that enough money was not being spent and so the next Plan should increase spending, the Planning Commission has proposed education vouchers. It says that 8220;a more powerful method of enforcing accountability is to enable parents to choose between the schools where they will send their children. Enabling people to choose between available public or private schools by giving them suitable entitlements reimbursable to the school and thus creating competition among schools, could be considered8221;.

Further, another new element in the approach is the proposal to monitor learning. Until now, the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan has put emphasis on enrolment and attendance through the mid-day meal scheme with the 8216;Shiksha8217; part of it not getting much importance. The approach paper suggests that the extent of learning should be monitored by regular testing by independent bodies, and this will be used for rating schools.

A similar framework is proposed for secondary schools, of which 58 per cent are currently private aided or unaided. The approach paper again suggests a voucher scheme which would allow students to go to private schools where they exist.

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Similarly, there is an acceptance of the Tenth Plan8217;s failure on primary health care. The paper reports that random checks have shown that 29 to 67 per cent doctors were absent. It proposes that in order to energise health systems for improving health outcomes, innovative financing mechanisms are critical. 8220;Publicly supplied health care depends on how health care providers are paid. Providers should be paid only if they actually perform a service.8221;

It is clear from the approach paper that additional money should not be spent on current schemes. But will the planning commission be able to resist pressure from ministries such as the human resources and health ministries who usually like to expand existing systems, employ more teachers and doctors? Vouchers would do away with the rents that politicians and bureaucrats earn in appointments, transfers and procurements. It would be a pity if despite a realistic assessment of the situation and an honest analysis of the problems, the government goes back to increasing plan outlays on the tried, tested and failed schemes.