Lok Sabha Question No. 2642 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2026-03-09
Subject: Expenditure on Education in terms of percentage of GDP
Ministry: EDUCATION
Asked by: Shri Anurag Sharma

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 2642 ANSWERED ON 09.03.2026

## Expenditure on Education in terms of percentage of GDP

2642. Shri Anurag Sharma:

Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state:

(a)  the  details  of  the  current  public  expenditure  on  education  in  terms  of  percentage  of  Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country;

(b) whether the Government has worked out any plan on the feasibility of achieving the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 target of 6 per cent and the financial strategy to bridge the gap, if any and if so, the details thereof; and

(c) the details of the annual requirement for digital infrastructure in Government schools across the country and the extent to which the current allocation meet this need?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (DR. SUKANTA MAJUMDAR)

(a):  As  per  'Analysis  of  Budgeted  Expenditure  on  Education,  2022-23',  public  expenditure  on education (Central and States/UTs) as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is 4.06%.

- (b): Education being in the Concurrent List of the Constitution, increasing expenditure in education is  the  responsibility  of  the  Central  and  States  Governments.  The  Centre  and  States  are  working together  to  increase  the  public  investment  in  education  sector  to  reach  6%  of  Gross  Domestic Product  (GDP)  at  the  earliest.  Several  initiatives  have  been  taken  by  the  Government  of  India including consistent increase in Budget Allocation of the Ministry of Education from Rs.93,224.31 crore in F.Y. 2021-22 to Rs. 1,39,289.48 crore in 2026-27(an increase of 49.4% in 5 years).
- (c): As education is in the Concurrent List of the Constitution, majority of the schools are under the domain of respective State and UT Governments. Under Samagra Shiksha, financial assistance is provided  to  States/UTs,  including  rural,  tribal  and  economically  backward  areas,  inter-alia  for setting  up  of  ICT  labs  and  Smart  Classrooms  in  Government  and  Government  Aided  Schools having classes VI to XII.

Till  date  1,79,153  ICT  Labs  and  1,76,738  Smart  Classrooms  have  been  sanctioned  to State/UT  Governments.  Based  on  the  UDISE+  data  and  funds  approved  in  Project  Approval Board's (PAB) meetings to States/UTs for the year 2025-26, gaps were identified in saturating ICT Labs and Smart Classrooms in Secondary and Senior Secondary Schools in States/UTs. To address this  gap,  22,618  ICT  Labs  and  29,920  Smart  Classrooms  in  States/UTs  were  approved  for  the saturation of these facilities in the year 2025-26. Further, to saturate all functional Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBVs) 3,564 ICT Labs and 3,655 Smart Classrooms were approved in the year 2024-25. The year wise details of funds allocated in the last four years (i.e. from 2021-22 to 2024-25) for ICT Labs and Smart Classrooms in Government and Government-aided schools is as under:

(Rs. in lakh)

| Financial Year   | ICT Labs   | Smart Classrooms   |
|------------------|------------|--------------------|
| 2021-22          | 68,456     | 91,093             |
| 2022-23          | 41,824     | 73,823             |
| 2023-24          | 55,904     | 53,730             |
| 2024-25          | 54,372     | 59,519             |

The Government of India, in the Budget 2025-26, has announced provision of broadband connectivity to all Government Secondary Schools in rural areas, under the 'BharatNet' project to enhance digital infrastructure in remote areas by BSNL.

To  achieve  the  objectives  of  National  Education  Policy  (NEP)  2020  and  to  bridge  the digital  divide  in  education,  a  comprehensive  initiative  called  PM  eVidya  was  initiated  as  part  of 'Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan' on 17th May,  2020, which  unifies all efforts related to digital/online/on-air education to enable multi-mode access to education across the country under the  aegis  of  NEP  2020.  States/UTs  collaborate  with  NCERT to  utilise,  monitor  and  evaluate  the effectiveness of these initiatives as per their requirements in mother  tongue/local/regional languages. PM eVidya includes 200 DTH TV Channels allotted to States/UTs/Autonomous Bodies (ABs)/Other Ministries in Government of India and 400 Radio channels to enable them to provide supplementary education as per their requirement in various Indian languages for classes 1-12.

Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing (DIKSHA) is the Nation's One Nation, One Digital platform for providing quality e-content for school education including Government schools in  States/UTs  along  with  QR  coded  Energised  Textbooks  (ETBs)  for  all  grades.  States/UTs/Abs have generated and contributed over 3.7 lakh content in mother local/regional languages enabling multilingualism.  DIKSHA  Offline  supports  areas  with  limited  or  no  internet  connectivity.  The stakeholders have access to more than 450 Virtual Labs and 100 Virtual skill labs on DIKSHA.

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