Karnataka may have to stretch financial muscle for Right to Education

Karnataka has declared that it will implement the Right to Education (RTE) Act in its entirety, but educationists and officials doubt if the state has the financial muscle to do so.

Education being a subject under the concurrent list of the Constitution, the states and Centre have to share responsibility in implementing various schemes.

The RTE Act pegs the central financial contribution at 65%, while the individual states have to come up with the remaining 35%.

The National University of Education Planning and Administration has estimated that about Rs1.7 trillion needs to be spent in the next five years to implement the Act.

Some states, like Uttar Pradesh, have openly expressed their inability to contribute their share, but primary and secondary education minister Vishveshwar Hegde Kageri has stated that Karnataka will take full financial responsibility.

“It will be difficult for the state to implement the Act smoothly, since it will need a large amount of funds to provide free and quality education to poor kids,” an official of the education department, who did not want to be named, said. “The state should have done a proper analysis before making the commitment.”
“If poor states do not have the funds, the RTE Act will be under threat,” Pravin Shivashankar, senior manager (Karnataka) of Child Rights and You (CRY), an NGO, said.

Experts feel that the amount estimated by the National University of Education Planning and Administration will not be sufficient. “India is home to 45 crore children and about 56% of them drop out from school every year,” Y Mariswamy, senior member of Samajik Parivarthan Janandolan, a state-level alliance of organisations working in the field of education and health, said.

“The estimated budget will be very little to ensure education to all children by addressing such issues.”