Lok Sabha Question No. 2 (STARRED), answered on 2017-07-17
Subject: Expenditure on Primary Education
Ministry: HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: ABHISHEK SINGH

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION AND LITERACY

## LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION No. *2

## TO BE ANSWERED ON 17 TH  JULY, 2017

## Expenditure on Primary Education

## *2. SHRI ABHISHEK SINGH:

Will the Minister of HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state:

- (a) the  percentage  of  Gross  Domestic  Product  (GDP)  presently  being  spent  on primary education in the country and plans drawn by the Government to improve the same;
- (b)  whether  the  Government  is  aware  that  school  education  level  in  the  country  is comparatively  low  when  compared  to  global  standards,  if  so,  the  details  thereof and the reasons therefor; and
- (c) the corrective steps taken/proposed to be taken by the Government in this regard?

## A N S W E R

## MINISTER OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT (SHRI PRAKASH JAVADEKAR)

- (a) to (c): A statement is laid on the Table of the House.

## STATEMENT  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  TO  PARTS  (a)  TO  (c)  OF  LOK  SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. *2 TO BE ANSWERED ON 17 TH  JULY, 2017 ASKED BY SHRI ABHISHEK SINGH REGARDING EXPENDITURE ON PRIMARY EDUCATION

(a)   The Public Expenditure on education as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been increasing in recent years from 3.70% in 2012-13,  3.86% in 2013-14 to  4.04%  in  2014-15.    Out  of  this  the  expenditure  on  elementary  education  including primary education has also been increasing from 1.60% in 2012-13, 1.63% in 2013-14 to 1.82% in 2014-15.

As the subject 'Education' is in the concurrent list of Constitution of India, the Central Government and the State Governments  have concurrent responsibility for providing funds of carrying out the provisions of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 and increasing standards of primary education.

The  fund  sharing  pattern  between  the  Central  and  State  Governments  for  Sarva Shiskha  Abhiyan  (SSA)  has  been  revised  ensuring  increased  contributions  from  the State Governments. This change in funding pattern combine with the acceptance of the recommendations  of  the  14 th Finance  Commission  by  the  Government  of  India,  the increased  devolution  of  funds  to  the  States  from  32%  to  42%  of  the  net  Union  Tax Receipts,  the  States  would  consider  allocating  more  funds  to  primary  education including SSA.

(b):  The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) conducts PISA  (Programme  for  International  Student  Assessment)  to  assess  15-year  olds  on their performance in mathematics, science and reading. The data has increasingly been used  to  assess  the  quality  of  education  and  its  impact  on  incomes  across  nations. Government of India to participated in the PISA in 2009 - but only for two states, Tamil Nadu  and  Himachal  Pradesh.  73 rd rank  was  assigned  to  India  based  on  samples  of these  two  States.  The  reasons  for  poor  performance  were  analyzed  and  it  was observed that the nature of questions/items asked in the PISA tests are content free and mostly application-based that require information on international names, brands, trademarks,  products,  etc.  with  which  Indian  students,  especially  students  from  rural areas, are unfamiliar.

(c) A numbers of corrective steps have been taken by the Government to improve the school education level in the country. Some important measures are:

-  The Central Government has decided to amend the 'No Detention Clause' in the Right for Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009.  The Bill in this regard is in advanced stage.
-  Conducting of annual National Achievement Surveys covering all students from Classes I to VIII in all government and government aided schools on all subjects.
-  Focusing  on  quality  education,  the  Central  RTE  Rules  have  been  amended  on 20 th February,  2017  to  include  reference  on  class-wise,  subject-wise  Learning Outcomes. These would serve as a guideline for States and UTs to ensure that all children acquire appropriate learning level.
-  Improve teaching standards, including regular in-service teachers' training, induction training for newly recruited teachers, training of all untrained teachers to acquire professional qualifications through Open Distance Learning (ODL) mode, recruitment  of  additional  teachers  for  improving  pupil-teacher  ratios,  academic support for teachers through block and cluster resource centres,  continuous and comprehensive  evaluation system to equip the teacher to measure  pupil performance  and  provide  remedial  action  wherever  required,  and  teacher  and school grants for development of appropriate teaching-learning materials, etc.
-  States and UTs are supported on early grade reading, writing & comprehension, and  early  Mathematics  programmes  through  a  sub-programme  of  SSA  namely 'Padhe Bharat Badhe Bharat' (PBBB) in classes I and II.
-  Launched  Rashtriya  Aavishkar  Abhiyan  (RAA)  programme  on  09.07.2015,  inter alia,  as  a  sub-component  of  Sarva  Shiksha  Abhiyan  and  Rashtriya  Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA), to motivate and engage children of the age group from 6-18 years in  Science,  Mathematics  and  Technology  through  observation, experimentation, inference drawing, model building, etc. both through inside and outside classroom activities.
-  Provides various facilities to students as per model rules prescribed under RTE Act, 2009 at all levels to ensure high enrolment and quality of education including scholarships and teacher training.
-  Launched the 'Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya National Mission on Teachers and Teaching' in December, 2014 with a vision to comprehensively address all issues related  to  teachers,  teaching,  teacher  preparation,  professional  development, curriculum design, research in pedagogy and developing effective pedagogy.
-  The National Council of Educational Research & Training (NCERT)  has developed  a framework  for Performance  Indicators for  Elementary  School Teachers (PINDICS) and shared with the states. PINDICS will eventually evolve as the framework for effective teacher performance for effective monitoring and benchmarking across the country.
-  The NCERT has developed and published an exemplar package on Continuous and  Comprehensive Evaluation  (CCE)  for  the  elementary  stage  in  all  curricular areas.  Further,  with  a  view  to  establish  a  system  of  periodic  monitoring  and regular  feedback  on  quality  related  parameters  and  classroom  processes  in elementary  schools  throughout  the  nation,  NCERT  developed  a  set  of  Quality Monitoring  Tools  (QMT)  which  have  been  modified  in  the  light  of  the  RTE  Act, 2009 and the revised SSA framework .
-  Curricular Reforms made that includes curriculum, syllabus, textbook, learning for age appropriate classes, print rich environment through library and other supplementary  materials  and  the  selection  of  appropriate  pedagogy  for  various levels of basic learning years.
-  To  ensure  recruitment  of  quality  teachers,  the  National  Council  for  Teacher Education (NCTE), has set norms and standards for infrastructure, instructional facilities  and  qualification  and  experience  of  faculty  for  the  teacher  education institutions in which teachers are educated.  For this purpose, NCTE has revised its Recognition, Norms and Procedure, Regulations 2014. The Regulations 2014, have enhanced the duration of teacher training programmes like B.Ed and M.Ed to  two years and increased the period of Internship to make these programmes more rigorous  and  professionalized.  Modules  on  gender,  equity,  ICT,  yoga  and inclusive education have also been added in the teacher education programmes.

*****